In light of inflamed passions, I hesitantly offer the following:

Political violence and school shootings are essentially the same thing.

Am I seeing this correctly? Convince me that I’m wrong.

Two days ago, MAGA spokesman and activist Charlie Kirk was shot and killed at an appearance on a college campus. That same day, a school shooter opened fire at Evergreen High School in Colorado. He injured two students before shooting and killing himself.

Are the two incidents the same or vastly different?

Details are different, of course, but I think the similarities between the events are much greater. Both actions are hate-filled and demonic.

Both actions reject the inherent value of human life, value given by God, who created both victims and killers to bear his image and to know and be known by him.

Another essential similarity is the way people respond and how those responses are culturally/politically coded. Again: have you noticed this? Am I wrong?

• When there’s a school shooting, a large segment of the country blames it on structural problems. “Gun control”, “mental health”. And another says, “evil individuals with evil in their hearts”.
• When there’s political violence on American soil, a large segment of the country says, “They’re out to get us.” And another says, “evil individuals with evil in their hearts.” The differing responses seem to be determined by whether the respondent identifies with the target or not.
  • (At least, those are the sane responses. On the extremes, some will so identify with the assailant’s prefectural “causes” or so hate the target that they will defend the spirit of the action, or even the action itself. But that’s insanity.)

As different and politically coded as our responses tend to be, I don’t think there is an essential difference between school shootings and killings that are politically motivated.

At the heart, regardless of target or “rationale”, deadly violence is demonic and must be condemned without throat clearing, both-sidesing, whatabouting, excusing, “root-causing”, etc.