” I’m sorry for your loss!”

“My condolences!”

“I will be praying for you!”

Once again America is in shock, another mass shooting at an elementary school. Twenty-one lives gunned down, twenty-one persons who will not be at home. All twenty-one were looking forward to the end of the school year this Thursday.

The three above statements are the common responses to the news of a death. Statements that this time seem hollow, they leave our lips in an almost robotic manner.

It is unthinkable that parents have to outlive a child, in the course of life the reverse is what is to be expected. I have seen how the loss of a child affects the parents, the siblings, grandparents, and also friends. I watched my aunt and uncle bury their oldest daughter of eighteen years. They were never the same and the grief tore them apart. They soon found themselves divorced. I was the organist for a funeral of a Pastor and His’ wife as they said their last good-byes to their fifteen year old son. Their grief so heavy they barely could keep themselves from landing in a heap on the church floor.

According to Security.org, they report that there have been ‘304 fatal school shootings and counting”. The numbers leave the mind boggled and in total disbelief.

Even here in my country of Canada were also have seen mass school shootings. According to Global News here is the list of them:

I have omitted the names of the shooters

• Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal: On Dec. 6, 1989, 25-year-old *shooter’s name omitted”, shot more than two dozen people, killing 14 women before killing himself.
• Dawson College, Laval, Que: On Sept. 13, 2006, 18-year-old Anastasia De Sousa was killed and 20 others were hurt when gunman *shooter’s name omitted” , 25, opened fire with a semi-automatic weapon. Gill was killed in a police gunfight.
• W.C. Jeffreys Collegiate Institute, Toronto: On May, 23, 2007, 15-year-old *shooter’s name omitted*, is found in a hallway with single gunshot wound to the chest. He later dies in hospital. Two teens were charged with first-degree-murder and were later acquitted.

So dear reader, if you are a parent with children, may I suggest you give your child a hug and then tell them how much you love them!