Another mass shooting has awakened the anger and horror of the american people. The Miami shooting (which comes on the heels of the murder of an amazing young singer–lets not forget some crazy killed Christina Grimmie only days ago and a few miles away from the Miami attack) left 49 dead and more dying from injuries doctors consider grave. I send my condolences to the families of those lost and injured. I truly hope those deaths spur some change that can prevent such a thing from happening in the future, but I am not holding my breath. We have experienced mass killings with such a regularity lately that it is impossible to assume that anything more than political banter and leveraging will come of it.
Here is what hurts me the most about this entire event: The Westboro Baptist Church has glorified the shooting by claiming God sent the shooter to do this horrible thing. Westboro, a group known for their anti LGBT hardline is couched in Christian philosophy and as such is not considered a radical group or anything remotely like ISIL or any other terrorist leaning organization. However, the fact that this shooter, as deranged as he clearly was, believed in the Muslim faith the case is being declared an act of domestic terrorism. Westboro’s support meanwhile is not. Why? Because, in part, they are of the right sort of faith and haven’t actively contributed to a mass shooting yet.
This case is about hate more than it is about faith. This individual gravitated towards islamic extremism the way an outcast kid gravitates towards the emo coalition because it feels like somewhere they can find friends who feel like they do. Only this guy didn’t find any friends or manage to be radicalized (he was already there by most accounts including his ex wife’). Instead the dude decided that the way to be noticed–to become part of the flock–was to enact a mass killing so that someone would say, hey you did a really good thing. You mattered. That right there is the problem and perhaps a key to the eventual solution.