The latest Colorado school shooting, the one that occurred last week at Arapahoe High School, could have been much worse. But it was bad enough. The perpetrator, a student who had earlier been disciplined by the school librarian (apparently was his primary target), took his own life. Unfortunately, not before shooting 17-year-old Claire Davis in the head at pointblank range with a pump-action shotgun.
That shooting occurred not far from Aurora, the scene of the July 2012 school massacre that left 12 dead and 58 injured. Aurora is not far from Littleton, the home of Columbine High School, where 12 students and a teacher were gunned down in 1999. Claire Davis was rushed to a hospital in Littleton, where her family said she was in a coma.
The proximity of these horrific shootings at suburban -- not
inner-city -- schools is stunning and pernicious. What's even more stunningly pernicious is
that elected country sheriffs in Colorado of all places would refuse to enforce
laws aimed at protecting the innocent from senseless gun violence.
Everyone who's ever tried to raise chickens knows that no chicken is safe when there's a fox around. If the voters are too chicken to get rid of a county sheriff who places himself above the law, and elected officials at the state and federal levels look the other way, the rule of law is dead. And nobody is safe.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
4
1
