Carnage in Red Lake

Another school shooting, this time in the small town of Red Lake, Minnesota, on the Red Lake Chippewa reservation.

The Wasington Post seems to have the best summary so far.

The shooter first murdered his grandparents, then went to the school and killed a teacher, a security guard, and five students. Fifteen more were wounded, two critically. When police arrived, he exchanged fire with them, then barricaded himself in an empty room and killed himself.

You probably ought to read the descriptions yourself - it sounds as though the killer had at least a mental list of who he wanted to kill, for he bypassed several people, smiling and waving as he executed his murder spree.

The report implies that the police went in after him as soon as they arrived. Probably standard procedure now - one of the grim lessons of Columbine. They should be commended for their efforts - my guess is their efforts did minimize the carnage. For a small-town police force walking into their worst nightmare scenario, that's pretty good. All you can really ask of them, in my opinion.

The usual suspects are being blamed; poverty and the American attitude towards guns. I'm afraid I can't accept those factors as reasons, because there are a lot more people exposed to those factors who haven't become mass killers. More relevant is the killer's background. As ABCNews.com reports, the boy's father committed suicide, his mother is in a nursing home due to brain damage from a car accident, two good reasons to be depressed. He had also apparently become facinated by Nazism. Interesting that that 60-year-old evil failed philosophy continues to ensnare the troubled, lonely, and desperate.

What bothers me this morning is the media's handling of this situation. While I realize Red Lake is long way from the nearest major city, to my mind that makes just as important as if it was. But in listening to me local newscasts on TV and radio, even last night, this story was following frankly less important news. Is it because this happened on a remote reservation in Minnesota somehow devalue the story in the media decision-makers' eyes?

Or maybe because these events are so hard to understand, we are starting to tune them out...

God help us if we are.