Another incident has occurred that is out of the ordinary among us. A 65-year-old retired truck driver has kidnapped a 5-year-old kindergartner off a school bus. The kidnapper, Jimmy Lee Dykes, boarded the school bus which carried 21 kids, he demanded two boys and when the bus driver tried to block his way he shot him. Then he took a 5-year-old and has held him hostage in a bunker inside his property since Thursday January 31, 2013. The standoff between the shooter and authorities has been going on for several days now and the shooter still hasn’t given up. Jimmy Lee Dykes was known by his neighbors as an aggressive man who had shot at and threatened a few of them.

What drove this man to take such action? He has taken a helpless kid hostage and no one knows what he is planning to do. This kid is probably terrified, first of all because he is with a stranger inside a bunker. Second, he hasn’t seen his parents, and third he probably has no idea why this is happening to him. No one has the right to steal a child’s happiness or peace of mind. This man has already caused enough harm, not only to this child, but to the bus driver he murdered, to their families, to their town, and to all those people who have young children who now have to worry about their child’s safety.

 

So there are many people out there that do some of the dumbest things in this world and they leave people wondering, why on earth did they do that? Take for example the shooting in Connecticut, where many innocent children and school staff were killed and families were left devastated. No one will ever know the exact motive why Adam Lanza engaged in such a horrific crime. A lot of people like to talk and threaten others when things don’t go their way and try to find a simple excuse to retaliate against the people they threaten but they never actually do it.

Except Adam Lanza who is an outlier from the group of violent people who do horrible things. He not only killed one or two people, but he killed elementary children and staff. A place where a mother or father can leave their child without their direct supervision and expect for the child to be there safe and ready to be picked up in the afternoon to go home, was suddenly made into a death trap by this 20-year-old murderer.

Safe havens such as Sandy Hook Elementary, a temple in Milwaukee, or a pair of trade centers in New York do not resemble gun ranges for the crazies to alleviate their problems. Which brings back to my question, why on earth would they do that?