Friday Bloody Friday

The Yard wants to harpoon the Sterling’s as they try to steal the soul of the Clippers. The Dodgers are starting to play to their potential although still struggling to stay above .500. The Lakers may never find that level again. We will get back on topic soon but none of it really matters this week. Six students will never attend another class, keg party, or graduate. We can only hope their murderer will burn in hell for the young lives that were snuffed in an explosion of narcissism. Elliot, was your life that bad with your fancy cars, sunglasses and You Tube career? You want to see a difficult world just drive south on 101 and see all of the workers in the fields. They are not fretting about not getting laid, they are picking strawberries so their families can eat. You so wanted to experience sex. You should have tried to survive and the court system would have helped you achieve that dream. To say you are a loser would be giving losers a bad name. Mr. Martinez outrage at his son being killed is understandable and something no parent ever wants to experience. Guns have been part of this culture and the economy since our fight for Independence. Our forefathers wanted the second amendment to ensure there were armed militias when the British came on land. The guerilla tactics of those militias helped gain our freedom. There was very little evidence of social alienation in 1776. It was a fight for survival not acceptance. Since that time, the evolution of guns has produced arsenals capable of taking down an army let alone a Red Coat. It is too late to put the silly string back in the canister. It will never change in our lifetimes no matter how many times events like this past weekend occur. If 26 people getting killed at Sandy Hook Elementary does not lead to change, it is doubtful anything will. We do not own a gun. We are not advocates or opponents of the gun lobby for reasons just stated. The Yard would suggest that the NSA with all of their snooping computers and advanced statistical algorithms should be working on being able to predict these events. If you believe Mr. Snowden, the technology is there just pointed at the wrong enemy. We are not analysts but there are some common themes in all of these mass killings. 90% of these lunatics are 16-22 year old white males. They are social outcasts who feel society needs to be punished for their inability to integrate into the mainstream. Most of these deranged minds documented their plans well in advance in diaries, social media, on web sites and to those around them. Every one of them does not turn into a killer but it is better to know who they are and if they are armed in advance. Everyone seemed to know that Rodgers was a ticking time bomb but there was no apparent course of action. His parents sent the Sheriffs to go visit him and he made nice and they left. Is there not a national database of registered guns? He had both handguns used in the killings when the sheriff visited. Couldn’t the sheriff query that and say, the kid seemed ok but has he recently bought any handguns? Oh look, he purchased a Sig Sauer last year. What is this dweeb going to use that for besides shooting up Isla Vista? The age of consent should be 25+ years old and the purchaser should have to bring three credible witnesses to vouch for their sanity. Whoever the gun owner was who sold Elliott the weapons should have known just looking at that kid, this is not smart. Why does a nerd like that need a weapon like this if at all? We do not think he was any less creepy that day in the store than as seen on You Tube. He did have cash. This piece may be way off topic for the Yard but it hit close to home. With random violence permeating our society it is easy to keep moving along the walkway of life after a moment of silence. 153 people have been shot and killed on school campuses since 1996 with hundreds more injured some permanently. My son is senior at UCSB. Several of our friends have children attending this fine institution. Waking up on a Saturday morning to news that there has been carnage at your child’s school and you cannot reach your child, is a harrowing frozen moment. For 12 parents, they will never hear from their child again. Ours was camping with friends and out of the kill zone. Theirs were conducting routine innocuous events on a Friday night that they will never do again. As a society, we are not going to eradicate guns or psychos but we can try to come up with formulas that identify the ones that are armed and keep the rest from getting armed. Godspeed.