A Columbine Father Speaks Out

[TCBF]

The following is a portion of the transcript:

"Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

"The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain's heart.

"In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA - because I don't believe that they are responsible for my daughter's death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel's murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy -- it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best.


Your laws ignore our deepest needs,

Your words are empty air.

You've stripped away our heritage,

You've outlawed simple prayer.

Now gunshots fill our classrooms,

And precious children die.

You seek for answers everywhere,

And ask the question "Why?"

You regulate restrictive laws,

Through legislative creed.

And yet you fail to understand,

That God is what we need!



"Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational

systems for most of our nation's history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine's tragedy occurs -- politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.



"As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA -- I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!

My daughter's death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!"

- Edit: The Snopes ref below stated that the above statement was, in fact, made, but the framing comments were not.  I have removed thre framing comments.

 

[Michael OLeary]

From Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/scott.asp

Darrell Scott Testimony
Claim:  E-mail describes Darrell Scott's statement before a House subcommittee.
Status:  Partly true.
Examples:  [Collected via e-mail, 1999]

Finally, contrary to the coda of the e-mail, the "media" did not prevent anyone from hearing Darrell Scott's words. The subcommittee hearing at which he spoke was covered by the Associated Press and reported in several big-city newspapers — actually an atypically large amount of general media coverage for a House subcommittee hearing.

 

[TCBF]

My above edited IAW Snopes.

 

[sigpig]

Ok, so more religion in schools would have prevented Columbine, and other events like VA Tech?  Is not the US far and away the most religious of first world countries now? Is it not also the most violent of the first world countries?

The daughter is described elsewhere as a devout christian. Well, where was her god? As usual, awol.

Prayer is not outlawed in schools. Official, administration led prayer is, as it should be. Individuals are free to talk to themselves all they want.

To say there is a lack of religion is any aspect of US society is ludicrous. It's everywhere, and it never stops the school or workplace shooting of the month.

(It's the guns people, always has been, always will be. But they'll never admit that because guns are as sacred as their god. Which is why these types of events will occur again, and again, and again.......)

PS. As a father, I feel as bad as anyone for a man who has lost a child, but that doesn't make saying stupid things right.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

The daughter is described elsewhere as a devout christian. Well, where was her god? As usual, awol.

Well, that finally does it for me, You just had to add that last part didn't you? You have been giving those of us who don't believe a black eye on this site for far too long and I am tired of telling you this. Goodbye.

, but that doesn't make saying stupid things right.

I guess this means you agree with my decision then.

 

[PeptoBismarck]

First off, thanks for banning that (insert descriptive here).
Secondly, I agree with the above insofar as it's about the guns. However (I believe he meant getting rid of them) I believe that the more guns in our society, the better off we are. This is, by the way, NOT a matter of opinion as some of you will inform me. You see, "an armed society, is a polite society." Try doing a school massacre where every teacher and senior student has a gun at his hip. Has no one ever stopped to think that all the massacres in recent history were done in 'gun-free-zones'?

I encourage you to look up Kennesaw, GA aka 'Guntown USA'. They're 25years murder-free and have one of the lowest crime rates in the free world. Why? you ask, because there, it's the LAW that all heads of household be armed. Everyone is armed, all the time.

The anti-gun lefties will tell you, "Well, why not just call the cops, they'll protect you." Let me ask you this: If the cops are to protect us from the criminals, who will protect us from the cops?

One more food for thought: "When catapults are outlawed, only outlaws will have catapults." ~Ancient Roman Proverb

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

Well I certainly agree with the Mod action here. Sigpig has a right to his opinions about religion and God but his disrespect for those who do practice what they believe is too much to stomach.

I must say I disagree with arming everyone that argument has been tossed around a lot after the VA incident and I think it's a nonstarter. the sheer number of handguns circulating in the US and the culture of guns there make this a more frequent problem there than anywhere else. It's happened in the UK....once in a blue moon and here too but not on an almost daily basis as in the US.

The media that our kids watch (mostly generated in the US) is totally violent and depersonalizing....have you ever seen some of the video games they are playing....killing people at random etc.

i believe it is a spiritual problem but that won't be solved by saying the Lord's prayer every morning. We have to start teaching people that life is sacred....all lives...and that even playing at taking life is a serious moral failing. Those of us who train to keep the peace and fight our countries wars are involved in a moral good...none of us should ever thirst to spill blood but only in the just cause of establishing the rule of law and opposition of tyranny and law breakers.

 

[3rd Horseman]

Ok, so more religion in schools would have prevented Columbine, and other events like VA Tech?  Is not the US far and away the most religious of first world countries now? Is it not also the most violent of the first world countries?

The daughter is described elsewhere as a devout christian. Well, where was her god? As usual, awol.

Prayer is not outlawed in schools. Official, administration led prayer is, as it should be. Individuals are free to talk to themselves all they want.

To say there is a lack of religion is any aspect of US society is ludicrous. It's everywhere, and it never stops the school or workplace shooting of the month.

(It's the guns people, always has been, always will be. But they'll never admit that because guns are as sacred as their god. Which is why these types of events will occur again, and again, and again.......)

PS. As a father, I feel as bad as anyone for a man who has lost a child, but that doesn't make saying stupid things right.

Monk house and Pepto
Have a little tolerance. Nothing he said is offensive in any way shape or form except to those who have a vendeta or lack the ability to hear anothers view because of a personal bias.

Sigpig was right, it does not make saying stupid things right.

"wheres your savior now..." Homer Simpson

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Tolerance??  Just the fact that you are still on this website speaks volumes about all my fellow Moderators, and especially, the owners, tolerance.

Don't stick your *cough* spec op nose in stuff that is none of your concern......

 

[Canadian Psyco]

as other here i believe what he said right up till the religion part. you can't force people to believe. I think to help stop crime we should loosen gun restriction laws as PeptoBismarck said.
I think gun violence really picked up after the 'nam era when the hippies wanted to have their children grow up gun free, telling them to stay away from guns and to never touch them, that lead to kids not respecting guns and in turn, their kids doing the same, fast forward to today and we got kids shooting other kids, I think it can be stopped through a better education of kids, such as mandatory education of firearm safety through schools, that would help the kids to respect guns for what they can do to other people.  just my 0.02

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Just so all know the scoop, and hopefully put it to bed, SigPig has been God bashing forever on this site to the point of being a troll. I don't give a rats ass what he, or anyone else, wishes to believe, however I draw the line at insulting those beliefs.

The daughter is described elsewhere as a devout christian. Well, where was her god? As usual, awol.

Thats it, thats all.....anymore needless lip and the ramp will open again.......

 

[KevinB]

My thoughts...

and for a little levity

I am a firm beleiver that legal firearms used properly by trained individuals do save lives -- at least the lives of people that should be saved.

 

[Samsquanch]

Excellent post Infidel-6 it's always a pleasure to read your posts. Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.
Cheers

 

[mudgunner49]

...the sheer number of handguns circulating in the US and the culture of guns there make this a more frequent problem there than anywhere else. It's happened in the UK....once in a blue moon and here too but not on an almost daily basis as in the US...

Wrong, on a number of levels...

First:

Please remeber that there are about 300 million people living in the U.S. and about 32 million in Canada.  Unless math has changed significantly since I attended school - and although I drank a lot of beer in university, I don't think that it has - that means that they are about 10x our size population-wise.  All else being equal, of course they are going to have more of everything on a scale of about 10-1 (see where I'm going here???) and this will include school shootings.

One of teh important things to note is that in every shooting where there was armed intervention by someone other than police, the event was stopped without further loss of life, including the shooter's...

Let's maybe look at the effect of psychotropic drugs and anti-depressants before we go villifying the gun.

Secondly:

http://www.bloggingtories.ca/btFrame...d%20Resistance

Wednesday, April 18, 2007
When mass killers meet armed resistance.


It took place at a university in Virginia. A student with a grudge, an immigrant, pulled a gun and went on a shooting spree. It wasn’t Virginia Tech at all. It was the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, not far away. You can easily drive from the one school to the other, just take a trip down Route 460 through Tazewell.

It was January 16, 2002 when Peter Odighizuwa came to campus. He had been suspended due to failing grades. Odighizuwa was angry and waving a gun calling on students to “come get me”. The students, seeing the gun, ran. A shooting spree started almost immediately. In seconds Odighizuwa had killed the school dean, a professor and one student. Three other students were shot as well, one in the chest, one in the stomach and one in the throat.

Many students heard the shots. Two who did were Mikael Gross and Tracy Bridges. Mikael was outside the school having just returned to campus from lunch when he heard the shots. Tracy was inside attending class. Both immediately ran to their cars. Each had a handgun locked in the vehicle.

Bridges pulled a .357 Magnum pistol and he later said he was prepared to shoot to kill if necessary. He and Gross both approached Odighizuwa at the same time from different directions. Both were pointing their weapons at him. Bridges yelled for Odighizuwa to drop his weapon. When the shooter realized they had the drop on him he threw his weapon down. A third student, unarmed, Ted Besen, approached the killer and was physically attacked.

But Odighizuwa was now disarmed. The three students were able to restrain him and held him for the police. Odighizuwa is now in prison for the murders he committed. His killing spree ended when he faced two students with weapons. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

You wouldn’t know much about that though. Do you wonder why? The media, though it widely reported the attack left out the fact that Bridges and Gross were armed. Most simply reported that the gunman was jumped and subdued by other students. That two of those students were now armed didn’t get a mention.

James Eaves-Johnson wrote about this fact one week later in The Daily Iowan. He wrote: “A Lexus-Nexis search revealed 88 stories on the topic, of which only two mentioned that either Bridges or Gross was armed.” This 2002 article noted “This was a very public shooting with a lot of media coverage.” But the media left out information showing how two students with firearms ended the killing spree.

He also mentioned a second incident. And while I had read many articles on this shooting for an article I wrote about school bullying not a single one mentioned the role that a firearm played in stopping it. Until today I didn’t know the full story.

Luke Woodham was a troubled teen. He felt no one really liked him. In 1997 he murdered his mother and put on a trench coat. He filled the pockets with ammunition and took a handgun to the Pearl High School in Pearl, Mississippi. In rapid succession killed two students and wounded seven others.

He had the incident planned out. He would start shooting students and continue until he heard police sirens in the distance. That would allow him time to get in his car and leave campus. From there he intended to go to the nearby Pearl Junior High School and start shooting again. How it would end was not clear. Perhaps he would kill himself or perhaps the police would finally catch up with him and kill him. Either way a lot more people were going to get shot and die.

What Woodham hadn’t planned for was the actions of Assistant Principal Joel Myrick. Myrick heard the gun shots. He couldn’t have a handgun in the school. But he did keep one locked in his vehicle in the parking lot. He ran outside and retrieved the gun.

As Myrick headed back toward the school Woodham was in his vehicle headed for his next intended target. Myrick aimed his gun at the shooter. The teen crashed his car when he saw the gun. Myrick approached the car and held a gun to the killer who surrendered immediately. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

So you didn’t know about that. Neither did I until today. Eaves-Johnson wrote that there were “687 articles on the school shooting in Pearl, Miss. Of those, only 19 mentioned that” Myrick had used a gun to stop Woodham “four-and-a-half minutes before police arrived.”

Many people probably forgot about the shooting in Edinboro, Pennsylvania. It was a school graduation dance that Andrew Wurst entered to take out his anger on the school. First he shot teacher John Gillette outside. He started shooting randomly inside the restaurant where the 240 students had gathered.

It was restaurant owner James Strand, armed with a shot gun, who captured the shooter and held him for police. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

It was February 12th of this year that a young man entered the Trolley Square Shopping Mall, in Salt Lake City. The mall was a self-declared “gun free zone” forbidding patrons from carrying weapons. He wasn’t worried. In fact he appreciated knowing that his victims couldn’t defend themselves.

He opened fire even before he got inside killing his first victims immediately outside the front door. As he walked down the mall hallway he fired in all directions. Several more people were shot inside a card store immediately inside the mall. The shooter moved on to the Pottery Barns Kids store.

What he didn’t know is that one patron of the mall, Kenneth Hammond, had ignored the signs informing patrons they must be unarmed to enter. He was a police officer but he was not on duty and he was not a police officer for Salt Lake City. By all standards he was a civilian that day and probably should have left his firearm in his vehicle.

It’s a good thing he didn’t. He was sitting in the mall with his wife having dinner when he heard the shots. He told her to hide and to call 911 emergency services. He went to confront the gunman. The killer found himself under gun fire much sooner than he anticipated. From this point on all his effort was to protect himself from Hammond, he had no time to kill anyone else. Hammond was able to pin down the shooter until police finally arrived and one of them shot the man to death. There would be no further victims that day, thanks to armed resistance.

In each of these cases a killer is stopped the moment he faces armed resistance. It is clear that in three of these cases the shooter intended to continue his killing spree. In the fourth case, Andrew Wurst, it is not immediately apparent whether he intended to keep shooting or not since he was apprehended by the restaurant owner leaving the scene.

Three of these cases involved armed resistance by students, faculty or civilians. In one case the armed resistance was from an off-duty police officer in a city where he had no legal authority and where he was carrying his weapon in violation of the mall’s gun free policy.

What would have happened if these people waited for the police? In three cases the shooters were apprehended before the police arrived because of armed civilians. At Trolley Square the shooter was kept busy by Hammond until the police arrived. In all four cases the local police were the Johnny-come-latelys.

Consider the horrific events at Virginia Tech. Again an armed man enters a “gun free zone”. He kills two victims and walks away long before the police arrive. He spends two hours on campus, doing what is unknown. He then enters another building on campus and begins shooting. He never encounters a police officer during this. And all the students and faculty present had apparently complied with the “no gun” policy of the university. So no one stopped him. NO ONE STOPPED HIM! And when he finished his shooting spree 32 people were dead. It was the killer who ended the spree. He took his own life and when the police arrived all they dealt with were the dead.

There were many further victims that day. The shooter never met with armed resistance.


blake

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

Yup read all that before and it doesn't convince me. The fact that it was easy for that deranged guy to get a gun led to him getting one and using it...we need to make them harder to obtain not easier. The fact that there are stores on every street corner in the US where ou can purchase one of these things with virtually no questions asked adds to the problem. I'm sorry I'm of the opinion that the only people that should get handguns are those who are issued them for keeping or making the peace. If you are a hunter and you can pass a test to say you can safely handle a weapon and are of sound mind then you can have a long gun....otherwise there is not a need for ordinary citizens to be packing heat that can be concealed in your waistband.
As I said before the whole problem is a spiritual one....not to have superficial prayers said in school in the mornings or when the football team wants to ask Jesus to win one for the Gipper... but one in which we as a society have to come to treasure human life as more precious than using "the taking of life" as subject for video games and horror films. we are a sick society and getting sicker.

 

[KevinB]

Well obviously your not well versed on US Gun laws
  To obtain a firearm in the US these days there is a NCICS done (National Criminal Instant Check System) -- the concept being that a free society one is inocent until proven guilty and non felons can buy firearms.  P.S. Most states (and now Va.) do not allow people that are reported to mental health to buy firearms either.
To be able to buy a handgun w/o a waiting period one will need that states CCW permit (and having the background and trainign for it already done).  Also you may not buy a handgun if from out of state.

WAY more people die from drunk driving that firearms -- and I dont see the outcry about that.

I'm sorry but its been proven that criminals who want guns will still get them regardless of the checks in place.  Secondly LONG guns are WAY more lethal than handguns -- your buying into the fearmongering of those who want to disarm the populace.

 

[IN HOC SIGNO]

Well obviously your not well versed on US Gun laws
  To obtain a firearm in the US these days there is a NCICS done (National Criminal Instant Check System) -- the concept being that a free society one is inocent until proven guilty and non felons can buy firearms.  P.S. Most states (and now Va.) do not allow people that are reported to mental health to buy firearms either.
To be able to buy a handgun w/o a waiting period one will need that states CCW permit (and having the background and trainign for it already done).  Also you may not buy a handgun if from out of state.

WAY more people die from drunk driving that firearms -- and I dont see the outcry about that.

I'm sorry but its been proven that criminals who want guns will still get them regardless of the checks in place.  Secondly LONG guns are WAY more lethal than handguns -- your buying into the fearmongering of those who want to disarm the populace.

Don't have to be well versed in the handgun laws of the US because
a. I don't live there (thank God) and
b. I know that there are far too many handguns floating around down there.
c. because of the realitive ease of getting them they are comng into our cities across the borders.

My point about long guns is that they serve a purpose other than killing human beings.....hunting. If there is a need or a desire for a reasonable person to have a gun and hunt, well and good. there is no need for fully automatic assault rifles to be in circulation among the public...these are for armed forces and LEOS only.
I am not buying into anyone's position...this is my position just as you have yours...the day we all feel that we have to pack heat in our society in order to protect ourselves will be a sad one in my opinion.

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Don't have to be well versed in the handgun laws of the US because
a. I don't live there (thank God)

This really disappoints me, I would've expected better from you.

 

[tank recce]

IHS - Your bit about "fully automatic assault rifles" is gratuitous, and quite frankly off-topic (I won't get into the redundancy of the phrase). None of the killers listed above used FA, none of the defenders used FA. Holly-wierd propaganda notwithstanding, FA isn't a great deal easier to obtain in the US than it is here.

To make the leap from debating CCW of a handgun by a trained and qualified non-felon, to decrying the free-love availability of personal machine guns (completely ignoring the fact that the notion is incorrect), is the height of faulty debating. It's blatant emotionalism, and suggests both a lack of understanding of the topic, and a prejudice that approaches "knee-jerk."

This is not the skilled auteur I have enjoyed reading in other threads. What happened?

Edit - "demonstrates" changed to "suggests". The original was too pompous and judgemental, even for me. 

 

[KevinB]

In Hoc Signo
You know -- I know Bruce well enough to know he is not the biggest firearm fan -- But I also know he is not close minded to the facts. He may still well not appreciate firearms in public hands -- but he's not ranting against them.(Who know's maybe one day Blake, I and others here will convert him  )

Obviously I cannot educate you since your closeminded on this issue -- however I want you to pondert the fact that we have laws agaisnt harming people -- so if one intending  on violating that law -- what is one more on guns?