Allen, Texas

On Saturday, May 6th, an unspeakable act of violence occurred at an outlet mall in Allen, Texas. A hate-filled man attacked the mall with an AR-15 assault rifle, killing eight people and wounding seven others before then being killed by heroic police officers who happened to be at the mall on an unrelated call. Had it not been for them, there would’ve been many more dead.

Let us consider the victims. The first victim was a 20-year-old security guard who confronted the gunman. Another was a young girl whose face got blown off. Then, there was a 6-year-old boy who lost his entire family - his father, his mother, and his three-year-old younger brother. Just imagine the shock and grief; his whole family gone in the blink of an eye. Amongst the wounded was a mother whose two elementary school aged daughters were killed at the scene. If she survives, she will have to come to terms with the murder of her young, beautiful daughters. Another who died was a 27-year-old Indian woman who got her degree from Eastern Michigan University and was a civil engineer. Her body is going to be sent back to India for burial. The human toll from this crime is unimaginable. These were people who had just come to shop on an ordinary Saturday.

Let us now consider the perpetrator. He was a 33-year-old man who had been discharged from the military after only three months of basic training because of his mental health issues. That should’ve disqualified him from legally purchasing a gun, but apparently it was never reported so he was able to buy an arsenal of weapons, including the AR-15 he used on Saturday. This man was consumed by hate. He was into neo-Nazism and racial extremism and was an incel (involuntary celibate) as well. He had no girlfriend and had given up all hope. All he had were his guns. The police found five other guns in his car after he was shot dead. Although his motive remains unclear, I think he went to the mall because he wanted to kill families. He wanted to strike at the life he never had and at a society that denied him love. One day he decided enough was enough and he wanted to let the world know how much he hated everything. He wanted to kill those families at the mall so they could know his pain. He wanted to make the world pay for what it had done to him. I think he wanted to get even with the world and kill families because he never had one.

We have to find a way to reach out to these people before they commit such unimaginable crimes. Allen is a town of 100,000 people. That is about the size of Burbank and Glendale where I live. There are probably people like this in every community in this country - human time bombs waiting to explode. These are people who feel cut off from society and feel they have no future. Mass shootings can happen anywhere, anytime, at any place. Anytime we walk out the door, we run the risk of running into somebody who’s ready to explode and that will shoot us dead. We have to find a way to reach these people before they kill. Assault weapons should be banned since they have no place in civilian society, but we need to do much more than that. We have to get to these angry people before they get to us. We need to start a nationwide outreach campaign to make these people understand that there are alternatives to hate. Even if they don’t have a wife or girlfriend, they can still have a good life. They don’t need to be an outcast or take a gun out in public and shoot people to let the world know how much they hate it. We as a society need to help them acquire the skills they need to live successfully. We have to tell these people that hate is only going to lead to a global cemetery for the human race. We also need the president to declare mass murder a national emergency. We need a nationwide conference to address this problem and we need publicity campaigns around the clock telling these people not to go down the road of hate and that it does no good to kill people and to throw your own life away. We can help you and you can learn the skills you need to live a better life. Just because you’re having issues doesn’t mean you should take it out on everyone else. I think getting this message across is more important than just banning guns.

There are many alternatives to hate, violence, and the power of a gun. No one needs to go down that route. People can have a good life without killing. We have to get to these angry people before they get to us. We are all in danger. We should have community town hall meetings to discuss this matter and we should invite hate-filled people to attend. We should encourage people who feel heated to attend so they can talk and get help. We can’t let the hate overwhelm and consume them. No one deserves to die because of how much these people hate the world.