One cannot change the past.
But you did not need me to tell you that.
The decisions we take today will influence our future.
That neither.
A lone gunman killed six people last week in northern Mississippi, including his ex-wife and stepfather.
What could the authorities have done?
Could any decision taken by any of the authorities after this incident have made any difference to the shooting at Michigan State University in East Lansing on the 13th of February in which four people died, including the shooter?
What could the authorities have done?
Could any decision taken by them after this incident have made any difference to the seven people who died when a man opened fire at two farms in Half Moon Bay, California on the 13th of January?
Obviously, no. Each successive event happened in the past.
On 8th July, 2003, a man opened fire at his workplace in Meridien, Mississippi, killing six and wounding eight before committing suicide.
What could the authorities have done?
Should someone have taken a decision then that would have prevented a 23-year-old student from killing thirty-two students and teachers at Virginia Tech, and wounding seventeen others on 16th April, 2007?
What could the authorities have done?
Should someone have taken a decision after this event that would have made it difficult for a 20-year old to kill his mother before shooting and killing twenty children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, before committing suicide on 14th December, 2012?
Should someone have taken a decision after this tragedy that would have prevented the East Lansing tragedy on the 13th of February, 2023, or the norther Mississippi incident on 16th February, 2023?
Who can say? We cannot see the future, can we? We can only take decisions for the future.
But decisions have been taken. People can carry arms.
And we can give homilies.
“Enough,” said the President of the United States.
Presumably someone else, probably many, would have said ‘Enough” on 8th July, 2003 in Meridien, Mississippi, and on 16th April, 2007 at Virginia Tech and on 14th December, 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut.
What other decision could have been taken?
Make it mandatory for children and adults to move around in full armour as they are not safe at home, or at school, or in a public place?
Guns and assault rifles are failing to protect people, so should we upgrade the personal armament to Sherman tanks and F-22s?
Take away guns?
Who knows what is the right thing to do. Maybe a different decision taken a hundred years ago would have led to worse outcomes.
Meanwhile, halfway around the world, in early February 2023, the body of a young woman suspected to have been strangled by her boyfriend is found in a fridge in a restaurant owned by the boyfriend’s family, apparently to clear the way for his marriage to another woman.
What could the authorities, or anyone, have done?
Could any action taken by anyone have prevented, in late 2022, a woman from being strangled to death by her live-in partner, body sawed into 35 pieces, stored in a fridge (where else!) before the pieces were dumped in a jungle over several days?
What could the authorities, or anyone, have done? Obviously, nothing, apart from possibly trying refrigerators as accomplices in crimes against women. The second incident happened before the first one.
The brutal rape and murder of a young woman in 2012 in Delhi, commonly known as the Nirbhaya case, shook a population inured to crimes against women.
Should someone have taken a decision then that would have prevented another gruesome incident from happening in Mumbai in August 2013?
Who can say? We cannot see the future, can we? We can only take decisions for the future.
But, who says decisions were not taken? The government painted autos pink and launched a women-only bank. Private companies introduced a women-only washing powder and a financial advisory service only for women.
And we gave homilies.
Mostly saying “women are precious.” Like things.
What other decision could have been taken?
Like addressing parochial attitudes?
Like addressing parental differentiation between a girl and a boy during upbringing?
Who knows what is the right thing to do. Maybe a different decision taken a hundred years ago would have led to worse outcomes.
But it is certainly not a good advertisement for the society we have created.
darkofficehumour 
Spot on.
Thank you, Jacqui!
Brilliant post!
Glad you liked it!
A meaningful post, Ankur. We all wonder about what can be done. Maybe doing nothing is not the wisest choice.
Thank you, John. Change is always difficult I suppose.
It is.
Your post is excellent. I guess one could say, and they do, that most of this carnage could be prevented by eliminating firearms. It’s my opinion that that will only force crazies to use knives, or their bare hands. Both of which are much harder to execute than pulling a trigger. Or maybe the crazies would use poison, and relish the pain, and slow suffering of their victims. Bombs would be another way to kill more than one person at a time, but bombs might fall into the category of needing a brain to make such a device.
No one ever mentions making kids learn about God, or to teach them respect for life, or the concept of sin, or other more tangible ways to ward off the killer instinct.
Good versus evil is as old as the Garden Of Eden, and the story of Cain and Abel.
No one ever mentions searching the genome for a twisted gene within the DNA that might be responsible.
My guess is that these killings will continue until the end of time, and the gun control people will continue to argue their solution until that moment as well.
Probably true. I don’t know if gun control is a solution or will create a bigger problem, but the current outcomes don’t seem very good. Hence, it needs thought and possibly change. However, in my opinion, the isolationist society that we are creating has more to do with it. Can that be changed? I don’t know. Businesses thrive on isolation. The smaller the unit the more the potential buyers. Limited opportunity for people to talk and share. Not being the best or owning the best seems to be a crime. You become a loser. You want revenge at some point. And so on…
Well said.
Re “Or maybe the crazies would use poison”. True and of course they do.
Nowadays the crazies are called big pharma but apparently this makes it ok in some people’s books.
Their neuro-toxic drugs also cause the individual crazies to murder their wives, ex-wives, partners, school children or anyone else that takes their fancy.
Sadly few make the connection between big pharma and the gun crimes, or those behind big pharma.
Few make the connection between wars and arms manufacturers and that it seems ok to ban individual ownership of guns, but not ok to try and ban arms sales as this is all for our ‘health and safety’.
The fact that 6 of top 10 of arms manufacturers in the USA may be related of course. The USA also has top big pharma companies too.
Arms manufacturers and big pharma maybe related.
But ultimately as you truly say “No one ever mentions making kids learn about God, or to teach them respect for life, or the concept of sin, or other more tangible ways to ward off the killer instinct.”
Strictly of course you have mentioned it and others do mention it too. As to the twisted gene this is the case. There is a death gene anyway. Satan put it there. I did this if you haven’t seen it.
https://alphaandomegacloud.wordpress.com/2022/06/10/666/
Nice post. It’s very difficult to predict the outcome of a decision down the line.
Thank you! True. That being said, all of us need to take decisions.
Yes, of course.
Or, as our American friends will say, ‘make’ decisions 😉
👍👌
I would extend this to arming, or not arming Ukraine, and fighting or not fighting proxy wars. We can’t see the future, but we know it won’t be good.
We should back off and use diplomacy whilst securing our own defendable borders.
You don’t need to see the future to be wise.
Not arming Ukraine in my books, whether it rains in the UK-raine or not! And no to proxy wars because they ‘R’ poxy wars. A plague or pox on all their houses to those who promote wars!
True. One of the problems with any of these decisions is that they are not good for business. And for chest-thumping. And for rhetoric.
Many thanks Ankur for asking the right questions in your post.
Thank you! And sorry for the delayed response.
Yep! Happens everywhere. But, I think that it happens in the US of A more. Oops, wait a minute. What about Ukraine or is that a different problem?
Ukraine unfortunately seems to be the football that is getting kicked around by the big boys. It is the one that will be bruised, battered, deflated when the dust settles, while the big boys go looking for the next football to kick around.