This is Insane!

A little after midnight, Mountain Standard Time, Sunday, December 9, a gunman opened fire in Arvada, Colorado, a suburb of Denver, at a Youth Missionary center. He was turned away for a bed for the night. No details, it’s highly likely the mission had a valid reason for turning him away. Even if their reasoning was specious, however, that does not give him the right to kill two people.

Just after one PM, Mountain Standard Time, Sunday, December 9, a gunman opened fire in Colorado Springs, Colorado, in the parking lot of New Life Church, the largest church in the state (membership in excess of 10,000). The gunman took one life, a security guard took his. At the time the gunman was on site, the campus had about 7,000 people, as estimated by the pastor in an interview.

At last check, it wasn’t clear if the gunman in Arvada was the same as the gunman in Colorado Springs. He had plenty of time, though, it’s only about 65 miles between the two, and I-25, when it’s not backed up and overloaded is a pretty fair route to take. Of course, there was crossing Monument Hill, which, I promise you, is not fun. It’s 1,000 feet higher than the Springs and 2,000 feet higher than Denver, and we just recently had a bit of a storm blow through. But it’s not impossible.

Because both shootings were at religious establishments, the entire investigation may go federal, and be considered a hate crime.

On the one hand, it’s horrible to think someone would do something like this, take a shot at people who were participating in their religions. On the other hand, is it any worse because it was a church or a mission, instead of a shopping mall or school? No.

One thing that sticks in my head, though, one thing that I can’t stop thinking about, is a comment by a local newscaster. He began his report by talking about church, about that being the one place people think they’re safe. I don’t know what world he’s been living in, but there are hundreds of people who can attest that church is not the safest place to be. People who were in church when a bomb went off. Considering the degree of this tragedy, because people lost their lives, regardless of where they were, I know I need to let this go, but it does bother me, quite a bit, that the reporter would so callously disregard the highly-publicized hate crimes of the past, some quite recent. Those crimes weren’t based on religion, but on race.

The New Life Church is about 10 miles from here. They’ve had other problems in the recent past, things that, I hope, have nothing to do with today’s shooting. I don’t know. I don’t understand why someone would feel the need to kill someone. That’s not to say that I’ve never been very upset with someone, that I’ve not fantasized about killing someone. But there’s a HUGE leap from thought to deed. I’ve joked about going on a shooting spree and have been shut down by the PC police, but again, it’s not something I’d ever actually do. This is a lot to process.

My thoughts and prayers are with the people who were injured and their families, and the families of those who were lost. Including the gunman.