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Yes, I've spent hours in this forum the last few days fighting against these highly offensive claims that it's the mother's fault, or that her homeschooling of her son likely led to "emotional incest," or that all the Christians he knew failed to help him due to not trying at all or to being totally clueless and clumsy in their attempts ....... in contrast, of course, with these "Hindsight Is Best" Armchair Generals who must live for moments like this, where they can wring their hands and pontificate with, "Oh! If only even a single person in this young victim's life were half as smart as I was, they would have clearly seen this coming - as I do now - and fixed the situation immediately!"

Many, many of the reactions here make me ill.

I hear ya. If I could, I’d go back to when my children were little, but only if I knew all I knew now and was the same person I am now. But I can’t, and that won’t happen.

I’m certain a great many can point fingers at my mistakes of the past, too. Most especially, me.

We live in the present though, and God would not have me relive yesterday and dwell there.

I can only ask forgiveness for my unintentionally caused hurts; one day, we’ll all be perfect. Until then...we just keep our eyes above and “stand fast.”

or that all the Christians he knew failed to help him due to not trying at all

= = =

I don’t recall ever saying that or thinking that. I do find a lot of what was described of their actions and inactions greatly flawed.

They certainly have the right to be imperfect humans. It’s just that the leeway to be that way with this kid was a lot less than average.

I have been feeling the same way... I'm honestly surprised at some of the comments here. I would expect those comments at a liberal site, but not at FR.

He made his choices. He was at the age where he was old enough to know right from wrong, but he didn't care, he wanted it his way, and he chose to rebel and reject everything... instead he chose darkness, hate, self-pity, death and destruction. He followed in the footsteps of the "god of this world" (satan), who also wanted to be "God" and rebelled.

It is very, very sad, but this sort of thing happens a lot (not mass murder, but people making their own choices to reject faith and God... and choose death over life.)

Yes, Christians fall short, and every fallible human being can be hypocritical - but as someone else already mentioned, ultimately we are not to look to other people for perfection, or to always be trustworthy, because if we do, we're always going to end up disappointed. We are to look to God. And even when things are terrible and life seems unfair... that is when faith needs to kick in, that is when our faith is really tested. We can choose to trust God, or we can choose to wallow in misery and have no faith that things will get better. Unfortunately, the shooter chose the latter. And unfortunately, he chose to take others down with him... in the same way that the original rebeller did.