Op-Ed: Massacre at Nickel Mines: Legislation no solution

October 4, 2006
Pittsburg Tribune-Review

The horrendous execution of Amish schoolgirls in Lancaster County, Pa., will embolden handgun-control advocates to seek passage of stricter gun-control measures. And they would solve nothing.
Charles Carl Roberts IV, 32, described as an affable milk-truck driver, delivered carnage to the West Nickel Mines Amish School on Monday. He was armed with three guns (early reports say legally obtained), 600 rounds of ammunition, an electric stun gun, two knives, wire and plastic ties and wood to bar windows and doors.

Mr. Roberts bound the legs of 10 girls in the one-room schoolhouse and, when confronted by authorities, opened fire. Then he killed himself.

Roberts' derangement was as unpredictable as it is unfathomable. Associates described him as a good Christian family man who recently had withdrawn. Roberts told his wife he was seeking revenge for some still unspecified incident 20 years ago. In a suicide note he claimed to have molested children in the past.

But if not with a gun, Roberts surely would have killed with something else. As state Rep. Katie True, R-Lancaster, put it: "Someone gets up one day and says, 'I'm gonna kill all the girls.' How do you legislate against that?"

You can't because you can't legislate against the underbelly of human nature -- no matter how desperately the searing pain of unspeakable acts like those in Nickel Mines makes us want to or think we can.