I woke up yesterday morning to news about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Twitter was flooded with updates, and I was sobbing my heart out as I read each report. 26 dead, and majority of the victims were children. The list of victims was released today, and my heart broke once again when I saw that all the twenty kids who were killed were aged six and seven. The gun that took the life of these tiny, defenseless children was same as the weapons used by troops in Afghanistan. And according to reports from the coroner, the victims were shot more than once. Just trying to picture a small, fragile body of a six-year-old with multiple bullet wounds makes me cry in horror. Why? What could have triggered the gunman to do such a terrible, unfathomable act of evil?
My heart is broken and bleeding and the tears won't stop. I am grieving, even if these people are all strangers to me. I'm a mother, too. And once you have children of your own, when you hear about very young kids being killed, you feel a kind of pain that only parents can understand. They say when a parent loses a child, there is no greater pain. I can only imagine the devastation that the mothers and fathers of the young victims are feeling right now.
God help them.
Right now, prayers are being whispered for them all over the globe. The world is united in prayer, and sadness. The only thing to do, the best thing to do, is pray. For the souls of the victims, for the families they left behind. I am one of those in constant prayer. Lord, please have mercy and give them strength.
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According to reports I've read online, the three weapons used by the gunman belonged to his mother, who was his first victim. All legally purchased by the mother. The question that boggles me is this: Why does the mother own so many guns? I don't get it. They were living in a supposedly lovely and peaceful part of the state, so why the need to have deadly weapons?
I've been terrified of guns all my life. When I was a kid, I witnessed a shooting right in front of our house. Our neighbors were fighting, and two men took out their guns and started shooting at each other. I was so scared and until now I still carry that fear.
Gun manufacturers say these weapons are for self-defense. But that is no longer the case. The Sandy Hook gunman was said to have a personality disorder. This unstable person had easy access to deadly weapons legally owned by his mother. Yesterday, these "weapons for self-defense" took the lives of twenty very young children.
It's insane. And really frightening, this world we live in. A world that gives crazy mad men easy access to deadly weapons.
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I have an 8month-old daughter, and when I read about yesterday's tragedy, I couldn't help but think of this: Paano kung nangyari kay Aria yun?
It made me realize that life is indeed so short. And death really does come like a thief in the night.
So every day, every waking moment, love your children. Love your family. Hug them. Hold them. Tell them you love them. Don't waste an opportunity to say, "I love you."
And pray. For protection. There just isn't a safe place in this world anymore.
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Twenty children.
Six adults.
Rest in peace.