We Don't Need Gun Control We Need Less Hate

There probably isn't anyone who have not been effected by the sad day at Virginia Tech. My heart goes out to the families of those who lost their loved ones. Having lost a son in the Iraq war, I know the grief that all the parents are going through.
It is interesting how we know now so much about the young man who caused the carnage that fateful day that we didn't know before all this happened. Ironically it was known about him before all this happened, but nothing was done. Because of the HIPPA rules there was information about his mental state that could not be divulged to those who lived with him in the dorm all in the name of privacy. We are so concerned about our privacy that obviously we are willing to let our young people die rather than divulge this information to those who could have protected themselves.
I have a son Patrick who was born in Seoul S. Korea. My wife and I adopted him at the age of 3 1/2. After reading about the taunting and demeaning of this young man while in middle and high school i.e. "laughing at him because the way he talked and telling him to go back to China" brings back some of the bad times we had with our son by stupid people who made remarks and treated him bad. Once he stood up for a boy who was attacked by three boys after they had got off their school bus. He pulled them off of the boy. Later when he was delivering papers the three boy who were harassing the other boy, were hiding in ambush. They came after him on their bicycles, running them into him and knocking him to the ground. After he was on the ground, they commenced to kick and beat him. One kick hit him in one of his eyes. We spent 5 hours in the emergency room and it was thought that he might have lost his vision in the eye. I reported the altercation to the police. They made a call on the parents and the school. The assistant principle at that time shrugged it off as boys will be boys. I saw it as a hate crime, but at that time hate crimes wasn't a big thing. Many times the three girls in our church was always calling him Chinese boy and said things like, "who would want to marry you."
I know that there were many other times that Patrick had to take the taunts, remarks and who knows what else. Patrick is 30 yrs old now married and with two children. He is a Capt in the United States Army. He is a college graduate, has gone to law school, and now has a fellowship from the military to Post Graduate school. He has overcome a lot. He is a patriot who is constantly dealing with discrimination because of his military service. He has been mis-identified as the Chinese soldier ( does this sound like profiling?) at Fort Lewis, Washington who refused to go back to Iraq and missed his deployment with his troops who he was suppose to be their leader. Even today Patrick has to suck it up and live with this abuse. By the way we are very proud of him.
So.......you see, although it was a horrendous thing that this gunman did, please try to realize that some people who are weaker mentally don't know how to cope with the abuse that they have gotten over the years. It all builds up, they go over and over in their mind what they would like to do until it manifest into a reality. There were times when I was young, I was smaller than most in my age group and I was intimidated and bullied. I know there were times if I could I would have done something to those who abused me. Unlike this case, I couldn't and I got over it.
Think about this young man's family. Realize what they are going through. I lost a child. That is bad enough. What if he had taken the lives of 32 souls then killed himself. Live with that. If we cannot forgive, we can not be forgiven. "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass againsts us."
Bottom line: "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." That's what Jesus would do.