Testimony of a school shooter gives us the antidote to 'gun violence'
Wednesday was the first time Jon Romano shared his testimony publicly before an audience of people in his hometown. At 16 years old, he brought a gun to school with a plan to kill others and die in the process. Romano was foiled almost immediately by the assistant principal and spent 17 years in prison. Upon his release, Romano began sharing his story in what he says is an effort to raise awareness about what caused him to resort to violence.
He even launched a TikTok account with a stated goal of prevention, a move that is rife with controversy, and understandably so. After all, his actions were life-altering for his victims, and I can't know whether he's truly reformed or simply psychopathic. But what is worth noting is that much of the opposition to Romano's online presence comes from the side that screams about "second chances" and promotes the idea that victimizers are actually "victims" themselves and should therefore be exempt from punitive consequences. (While it's true that we are all victims of one another's sin, it doesn't negate the need for earthly justice.)
It's not a bad guy's fault he was bad! He's simply a product of his environment! This is exactly what we're seeing right now regarding the suspect in the murder of the far-left Brooklyn activist Ryan Carson, with friends and family saying Carson would have seen the assailant as a "victim" of "broken systems."
Yet, in spite of the endless calls to "do something" about "gun violence" and all the rhetoric about what "no child" should have to go through, you can guarantee that those anti-gun leftists won't want to hear what Romano has to say for another reason, and that is the obvious takeaway from his story.
The best prevention of school shootings is good fathers, strong and loving families, and childhood innocence. Rather inconvenient to philosophies of toxic masculinity, nuclear families being outdated and oppressive, and constant sexualization and exposure to very mature realities, wouldn't you say?
The engagement was held at a church, and local reporter Chris Churchill covered the event:
Romano gathered himself and told his story. He told the crowd of about 60 people how he'd suffered sexual abuse, how his dad had left the family, how he'd become a depressed and troubled teenager, and how, consumed with anger, he'd come to believe that school administrators had given up on him.
He explained that he eventually concluded it was time to go — to end his life.
'I didn't want to do it at home,' Romano said. 'I didn't want my mom to come home and find me.'
So, he conducted a plan to bring a gun into the school. That would lead to the end of his life, he figured, while also ensuring that the Columbia High School community would, for once, recognize his existence.
Romano experienced sexual abuse and was abandoned by his father. Right then and there, this little boy's whole world came apart. He wanted to be seen, and with the undeveloped reasoning skills of a child, he acted in a way that he knew would force others to see him. The trajectory of his life is completely predictable, which is why conservatives fight so hard to ensure that children are protected from the wickedness and tragedy of a fallen world and pass on traditional family ideals. Sacrificial love and morality are the antidotes to violence, which is why you will never see these ideals embraced by the left.
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