Steven P. Kazmierczak

Northern Illinois University became the fourthfollowing a campus shooting in his home state, but
university or school within a week to witness suchhe believes in an individual's right to bear arms.
an incident when Kazmierczak went on a shootingCan you beleive that? A Democrat believes in the
spree. Our schools are now one of the most2nd Amendment. And wins a grammy award too!
dangerous places on earth. On Feb. 8, a womanOn the serious and traumatic side, some are still
shot two fellow students to death beforebattling for their life in the hospital, while five
committing suicide at Louisiana Technical College infamiles are struck with the horror of preparing
Baton Rouge. In Memphis, a 17-year-old is accusedfor a funeral. DeKalb County Coroner Dennis J.
of shooting and critically wounding a fellow studentMiller identified the five victims who died as Daniel
Monday during a high school gym class. TheParmenter, 20, of Westchester, Ill.; Catalina Garcia,
15-year-old victim of a shooting at an Oxnard,20, of Cicero, Ill.; Ryanne Mace, 19, of
Calif., junior high school has been declared brainCarpentersville, Ill.; Julianna Gehant, 32, of Mendota,
dead.Ill.; and Gale Dubowski, 20, of Carol Stream, Ill.
Do we blame it on sun spots, Television, negativeThere are many experiences to the journey of
ions, full moon, or just a symptom of our violentlife, but death is simply unexplainable. It matters
culture? How many violent video games did henot whether it comes suddenly and unexpectedly
play?as in this case, or if it is drawn out over a 2-3
Kazmierczak, 27 shot 21 people before shootingincurable illness. Each path has it's good and difficult
and killing himself, was an award-winning sociologyaspects.
student and a leader of a campus criminal justiceWe are here for a short season and some are
group, according to school Web sites. Kazmierczakshorter than others. I lost a wife at age 18, a son
was a student about 175 miles away at thewho was 17, and both parents. From a fatal car
University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana. As farwreck, to a plane crash, to deaths by cancer, the
as anyone knew, there were no red flags- noresults are the same. There's always a void, and
warnings of any violent behavior. Police havemore victims than one initially considers. Some
found no notes that would explain the attack, anddeaths though are more symptomatic of
authorities have no known motive in the case.imbalances within our society and culture and I
Barack Obama said Friday that the country mustbelieve that Steven P. Kazmierczak is one of
do "whatever it takes" to eradicate gun violencethose.