In the wake of yesterday’s mass school shooting in Florida, I’ve seen people posting a wide variety of reasons for school shootings.

Some of the reasons for school shootings I’ve read:

• People don’t spank their kids anymore.
• Violent video games are causing school shootings.
• Mental illness needs to be better screened in gun buying.
• Gun laws need to be ramped up.
• We need MORE guns, so criminals won’t be the only ones with guns.
• There’s a lack of parental supervision.
• We need carry permits in schools, so shooters know they will meet resistance.
• There’s no respect for life because of abortions.
• We need walls to protect schools, not for our borders.
• It’s because kids aren’t taught morals or respect of others in school anymore.
• Prayer isn’t allowed in school anymore.
• It’s because parents aren’t actively involved in their teens’ lives anymore.
• We need metal detectors at every school.
• It’s because people are all talk and no action. (Other than the shooters, of course.)

Other plausible reasons for school shootings:

I haven’t seen ANYONE mention bullying pushes people to the end of their rope, but that’s a common fact revealed after the case.

What about kids who are beaten or verbally abused at home until anger erupts through a vengeful school shooting?

In this specific case, what if he lost all hope because he felt nobody seemed to care about his education and future (we do know he was recently expelled)?

What about the possibility his expulsion is indicative that his individual behavioral and emotional problems were not properly dealt with through the years?

What help DID he receive, or what help did he need that no one ever provided, that led him to the point of shooting?

As a symptomatic clue to reasons for shootings, I’ve seen NO ONE posting anything compassionate about what might have set the shooter on this path.

Whatever the ACTUAL reason is in THIS case, I’m SURE there are many more reasons people can think of for why school shootings happen.

And you know what? An argument could be made a case for EACH of the causes for school shootings people have presented.

However, every time anyone of us thinks we have presented the ONE reason for the school shootings, we’ve missed the forest for the trees.

Heart-level reasons for school shootings:

The truth is we live in a fallen world. Many of our hearts are deficient, lacking love and respect for each other. ALL of the factors listed above come together with the blaming, angry rhetoric on social media to create the toxic social climate we have today.

There seems to be little willingness to take personal responsibility for hurtful and damning words people spew against others. Hurtful, blaming rhetoric is spewed all over social media EVERY day, on the news, and even in face-to-face encounters.

As adults, we need to be aware today’s kids are growing up seeing ADULTS hurling insults at one another. Everybody is blaming others for everything wrong with the government, society, etc.

Adults don’t bridle their tongues. They seem to have a self-righteous need to proclaim everything perceived to be wrong with OTHER people. There is virtually NO awareness of a person’s individual contribution to the climate of today’s society.

We all contribute to the toxic climate when we make individual declarations against other people groups.

I see virtually NO seeking to understand other people’s views, but rather self-righteous rhetoric flows in a finger-pointing, blame game.

Where’s the sense of love and compassion for the hurting and broken? Is it ever right to post self-righteous declarations attacking another person or group of people? Before posting, what consideration have you given to the hurting hearts and souls of the people you’re attacking?

Virtually everyone is self-righteous in their OWN eyes, and even the mass shooters somehow think they are RIGHTFULLY taking out their anger on their victims.

The truth is: we have a societal and spiritual problem. It is much bigger than any of the individual problems I’ve seen proposed as THE reason for the school shootings.

We don’t yet know WHY yesterday’s shooter went on a rampage. We do know, without a doubt, it was NOT for “NO reason.” He had a reason.

Whatever the surface reason, deep inside it’s a soul-hurting, angry-spirited reason. We could have dealt with it if we all had compassionate eyes and loving hearts turned toward the broken and hurting in society.

This is not at all to condone the shooting in any way. It’s more to say preventing future school shootings requires taking a hard, long look at how society reflects our minds, our hearts, and interactions with one another.

Whatever we say and do, we are teaching our kids through our words and actions. Are we teaching our kids LOVE and compassion? Do ANY of us TRULY love our neighbors as ourselves? Do any of us TRULY CARE?

Personally, I believe we need a national conversation focused on how we can turn our society toward compassion, love, and unity. We need to LOVE one another to make America GREAT again!