“You were unusually quiet at the briefing, partner. Something on your mind?”

“Yeah. You remember last year, those two teenagers in the Midwest who shot up that school, killed 17 kids, and wounded another 30 or so.”

“I remember. They got hold of their father’s guns – assault weapons, automatic pistols and enough ammunition to start a small war. One of our own died too and several others wounded before our side finally put those two down.”

“Yeah. And remember, we were talking about their motives and you said that their motive was simply to kill somebody, anybody.

“And I still say that. Their rationale for this victim or those victims, the killer’s background or influences, that’s all a dead end. It’s like some of the terrorists we have had to go after. They latch onto a cause like a barnacle to a boat. Their childhood, social conditions, religious teachings, that’s all a mirage. These guys are going to kill, period. Whether it’s with a pitchfork or an assault weapon, somebody’s gonna die.”

“Yeah. Somebody is going to die. Though normally, killers themselves want to survive. Yet, those two at the school went through with it expecting to die. They were not going to surrender.”

“Suicide by cop while trying to add to the total, not necessarily unusual, particularly when two or more of these types pal up. It’s like they egg each other on. They start with the same self-preservation urges as the rest of us. They just move beyond self-preservation. There’s no rationality to it, just instinct. Or who knows maybe you’ve got a leader who has to show off and a follower looking to please, an alpha male sort of thing? Somehow self-preservation just gets thrown to the wind. That got something to do with our current assignment?”

“Yeah. I was looking at who we are assigned to protect. Those pals attacking that school didn’t have pitchforks. They had automatic weapons. At the briefing today, I could not help thinking what if those two pals grew up to have access to the nuclear launch codes?”

A posting from Kevin McGill’s The Possible Ks

Canadian Satire, Poetry, Social Justice Commentary & Inspiration

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