Why do young men shoot up schools?
For the same reason that Cain killed Abel: Revenge against God for the conditions of being.
Life is hard.
There's no way around that fact. Whether you are born into poverty or grow up in the lap of luxury, you will suffer. Your heart will get broken. You will try and fail. Your dream will be dashed to pieces.
It happens to all of us.
The trick, then, is learning how to get back up, pull ourselves together, and go on the wiser. Suffering is not fun, but it is a valuable teacher. And it is by this teacher's hand that we learn to play the game of life. Slowly, and sometimes painfully, we become more adept. We learn what works and what doesn't. We learn how to minimize the bad and maximize the good. And the better we get, the more fun we have.
This process is aided by parents, family, and friends who love us, desire the best for us, and are ready and willing to help us navigate all of these perils.
But what if it's too much?
What if, despite our best attempts, we can't seem to figure the game out?
We get frustrated. We sit back, watch these other people who seem to have picked it all up so naturally, and we get depressed.
And then, maybe, we get bitter.
How is it fair? How come they can do it when we can't?
At first, maybe we blame them. They are, after all, the face of everything we're not. Everything we want, but can't have.
But why is that?
Perhaps it's not just them. Perhaps it's the game itself.
Who invented this stupid game with its lopsided rules, anyway?
Cain knew the answer to that question. It was God who created life. It was God who made the world work the way it does. And it is on Him, ultimately, that he would have revenge. Revenge not just against Adam for his successes, but revenge against God for his own failures. Cain wanted revenge against God for the conditions of being.
"We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." - 1 John 3:12
?"By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts." - Hebrews 11:4
And that is what we are faced with today.
If you look at the profile for these mass shooters, you will find these conditions to be the same in nearly every case. They are young men who have not been successful in life. They've tried, failed, and can't seem to figure this thing out. There are only downs with no ups. They are outcast, can't win within the existing rules, and don't have a loving, healthy support structure to help them balance the losses.
Desperate, they turn against whatever they perceive to be the creator of the game. They want revenge against god - whoever or whatever they understanding that to be - for the conditions of being. So they shoot up the school they see responsible for their ostracization. They shoot up the church that represents a system bent against them. If they cannot succeed in leaving a legacy of life, they will succeed in leaving a legacy of death. If they cannot live on in glory, they will live on in infamy.
The wrath of Cain continues on.
How fitting that when Christ came to earth, these are the people he sought out.
At the height of his ministry, Jesus could have rubbed shoulders with anyone. His following garnered him the invite of every social elite. But who did he dine with? He chose the sinners. He chose the outcast. He chose the losers.
“For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are.” - 1 Corinthians 1:26-28
We are all sinners, and so Christ died for us all. But it's impossible to read the Gospels and not see that he had a particular heart for the hurting. He loved the pharisees and rebuked them. He loved the broken and healed them.
Perhaps the solution to the problem of mass shootings isn't ultimately found in legislation, but in the body of Christ rising up to carry on the mission of Christ. Maybe the radical reformation that our culture needs looks less like news laws and more like renewed hearts. Maybe these events aren't a call to arms, but a call to biblical faithfulness.
"Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God… And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother." - 1 John 4:7-21