#IssuesAtStake: Searching for answers to schoolyard murders
And while psychologists will take years to delve into this phenomenon, there are no practical answers to stop schoolyard murders, unless we are happy to sacrifice our children's freedom by holing them up in a security fenced environment.
Will there come a time when some deranged armed madman enters a South African school and ruthlessly mows down our children and grandchildren for no apparent reason?
Perish the thought.
But this terrifying possibility always floats at the back of one’s mind when a mentally disturbed American, typically a teenager, goes on the rampage.
Last week’s umpteenth mass shooting at the Uvalde elementary school in Texas, in which 19 primary school children and two teachers were slaughtered, again resulted in emotional debates about causes and solutions
Amid all the analysis over the past few decades to make sense of it all, the reality is nothing has changed and there is no reason to believe it will anytime soon.
There is no practical solution to prevent such random attacks in future or to identify would-be assassins before they act.
These are not acts of terrorism. Organised terrorist networks can be infiltrated and tracked by intelligence services to hopefully intercept some of their planned atrocities.
Schoolyard killers are isolated, unknown lost souls trapped in a dark vengeful world from where they can emerge at any time and at any place to execute the unthinkable.
For some inexplicable reason these attacks have so far been restricted to America, but there is no guarantee it won’t spill over.
The profile of the 18-year-old Texas gunman and those mass killers that came before him has a common thread – a background of broken homes, rejection by peers and more importantly, bullying.
These elements create a super psyche of failure and despair in an uncaring world which can easily trigger escalating resentment and subsequent irrational responses – a mindset of getting back at society and going out in a blaze of “glory”.
One fears the copycat syndrome.
The disintegration of family and societal values in violent South Africa and bullying in schools are at alarming levels, creating our own generation of mentally unstable teens walking the streets on a short fuse.
Their profiles, in essence, are really no different from the American mass shooters.
While one cannot buy military-type assault rifles and such over the counter as Americans do, handguns are just as lethal.
Preventing the ongoing emergence of lone wolf murderers goes far deeper than limiting access to weapons.
The root cause must surely lie in the consequences of our superficial western world values – which we share – where sense of place, order and respect for human life are diminishing at a rapid rate.
And while psychologists will take years to delve into this phenomenon, there are no practical answers to stop schoolyard murders, unless we are happy to sacrifice our children’s freedom by holing them up in a security fenced environment.
For now, prayer is our only hope.
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