Why must we weepGuest for this evil killer? The boy Roo’s got it all to do
So the latest school massacre was all about mental illness, not guns. That’s what Donald Trump has tweeted and it’s what a lot of America thinks.
But an UNARMED mentally ill young person with a psychotic hatred of his school is entirely safer than the same young person ARMED with an arsenal of deadly weapons.
However, we are being asked to be even more liberal and compassionate about the shooter. I repeat – he wouldn’t even be referred to as a shooter if he’d not had guns.
When Nikolas Cruz appeared in court charged with multiple murders, his public defender – the lawyer assigned to him by the State – put her arm around him.
She told us how he suffers from autism, depression and has had psychological problems – all “without the sort of support system that most people have”.
It reminded me of the excuses, or reasons, offered for the James Bulger killers. Should we have to anguish over the poor, sad perpetrators of evil acts? Or just lock them up?
“When your brain is not fully developed, you don’t know how to deal with these things,” Cruz’s attorney continued.
“That’s the child I’m sitting across from. He is deeply troubled and he has endured significant trauma that stems from the loss of his mother.”
Doesn’t this also rather remind you of some of the mitigation argued by gun killer Oscar Pistorius – now jailed in South Africa for the murder of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp. Yes, he too had a difficult upbringing and had overcome enormous physical and mental challenges.
But how many more times should we be asked to “understand” acts of evil and almost assume the burden of guilt for their tough lives?
Psychologists tell us we should not brand the person as wicked, but we can condemn their actions.
Well, Cruz did evil. He murdered 17 people, most of them beautiful young students with wonderful, valuable lives ahead of them. Should we weep for him, or them?
Sadly, millions of people suffer awful childhoods, are abused and deprived and lose their mothers.
They don’t plot to murder, maim and destroy others the way 19-yearold Cruz did – quite openly on social media (and only for the FBI to ponder and dismiss). We hear he even set off a fire alarm so that as many pupils would gather in one place and make a better mass target.
Can you even imagine what it was like for the parents of some of the kids involved, who frantically texted to mum and dad: “There’s a madman shooting up our school. I’m so scared!”
And another girl to her parents: “If I don’t make it out, I love you and appreciate everything you’ve done for me...”
Another sent his mum a WhatsApp picture of kids hiding under desks and simply told her: “Mom, I love you.”
Not knowing if he, too, would end up in a pool of blood on a classroom floor.
Yes, we’ve had these scenarios in Britain too. But rarely. Experts say we endure in a year the number of gun killings America has in a DAY.
So don’t let Donald Trump hijack the narrative and blame it all on mental illness. We’ll end up feeling bad for the wrong people. Congrats to the Rooneys on their fourth child – another boy, named Cass Mac. Coleen’s already thinking of number five because she’d so love a little girl. Ahem... in my personal experience, number five turns out to be a boy as well! If someone had absolutely guaranteed that my sixth would be a girl, then I might have tried once more. I don’t know why... someone to talk girly things with? Just to have the fun of buying little frocks? But I don’t think it’s healthy to obsess about the gender of your kids. Kids really are a gift, a blessing. I know the Rooneys already know that. But I reckon Wayne might as well accept right now that even more will be expected of him!