Daily Lessons from Life 03 June 2011 -

"Five dead in Arizona shootings - AFP 03 June 2011

LOS ANGELES: Five people were killed on Thursday in Yuma, Arizona, in a multiple shooting incident which triggered a temporary school lockdown, local media and officials said.

Yuma County Courthouse and at least two schools and a post office were put on lockdown after the shootings, and one victim was rushed to hospital in critical condition, said local TV station KSWT.

Police spokesman Clint Norred said there were a series of shootings around Yuma County, adding they were connected, according to the local Yuma Sun newspaper.

"There have been some shootings in the city and county. It looks like the person has targeted certain people but please use extra caution," added city official Greg Wilkinson, cited in an email obtained by the newspaper.

One of the victims, shot in downtown Yuma, was named as an attorney, according to newspaper, which said Norred would not confirm if a suspected shooter was alive or dead."

It has been a while since we last learned about some fatal shootings in the USA. It was sad to learn that one just erupted. Looks like gun loving Americans have to put up wit this mindless random killing as long as the gun-right folks are in power!!

Lessons for me are:

1. in a law abiding country where the laws enforcement is very effective, and more importantly, the people that reside in it, are peace loving type with NO NEED for gun at all, such random killings would not have been possible. It is harder to kill many people with a bat or a knife compare to a gun!;

2. of course, the occurrences of such random kiling compared to the no. of people who owned guns legally are very small. However, for every family of the victims, it is ONE TOO many!! Is gun a toy or a hobby? If it is, the people simply just have to decide to ban it or not! It is as simple as that!!;

3. we do not know what triggered this particular random killing. Hopefully that is a good reason. Not that any reason can be justified for killing people. Just that in such cases, we simply want to make some sense of such mindless killing! Any reason. We may not accept it but we need to know why the killer did what he or she had done for his or her own reason!

May the deads rest in peace and my condolences to the family of the victims.