Why Is There So Much Senseless Violence?

One would be right in challenging the title of this post on the basis that all violence is senseless—whether violence is an act of defense from someone else's senselessness or the violence itself is senseless, something senseless has to occur for violence to be involved. Last week, when I saw that yet another mass shooting had occurred, I didn't have any words. I haven't said anything because I don't know what words to use. While people have been praising New Zealand's response to the crime, I can't get past the fact that someone entered a mosque and just started shooting. 50 people are dead. Why?

Photocredit: Unsplash.com/Kyle Johnson

Some mass shootings and terror attacks seem to have no rationale, except that the person felt like killing people. Yet others can be characterized as hate crimes:

• The mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand (March 15, 2019)
• Pulse Night Club in Orlando, FL (June 12, 2016)
• Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, SC (June 17, 2015)
• 16th St. Church Bombing in Birmingham, AL (September 15, 1963)

But, no matter how it's explained, I can't get passed this question: How can you hate someone you don't know?

My dad once told me that when crazy stuff starts making sense, it means you're crazy too, so I'm quite content not being able to understand how you can pick one thing about some—something that probably doesn't even tell you a lot about them—and suddenly hate them. What I'm not content with, is seeing this play out over and over. I don't care what you believe, you should know that we were not created for this.

People were claiming we live in a post racial society, that racism was over because we elected a black president, and now, here we are. White supremacy is on the rise and endorsing the President of the United States. This senselessness is spreading from our borders. We don't need a wall to keep people from getting in, we need a wall to imprison the hatred that is seeping out.

It breaks my heart to know that people operate in such a manner, to know that level of hatred can exist. The people who died last week didn't do anything to this murderer. There was absolutely no reason to kill them. Yet here we are, watching people bury their loved ones.

The debate for gun control can be had. You can argue yourselves blue in the face about it. But what I want to get to is a world where given then chance, no one would even think of doing something like this. I want to live in a world where just the thought of killing people because they're different from you, just the thought of killing people because you're angry and don't know who to take your frustrations out on, just the thought of this kind of terror is unfathomable.

References

1. Ben Westcott, Jenni Marsh, Helen Regan, Meg Wagner, Brian Ries, Veronica Rocha, Aimee Lewis, Rob Picheta, and Harmeet Kaur. "Dozens killed in Christchurch mosque attack". CNN. March 16, 2019
2. CNN Library. "1963 Birmingham Church Bombing Fast Facts". CNN. September 7, 2018
3. Ralph Ellis, Ashley Fantz, Faith Karimi and Eliott C. McLaughlin. "Orlando shooting: 49 killed, shooter pledged ISIS allegiance". CNN. June 13, 2016
4. Jason Horowitz, Nick Corasaniti, and Ashley Southall. "Nine Killed in Shooting at Black Church in Charleston". New York Times. June 17, 2015