There is debate and horror-fuelled outrage following the shooting at a Florida high school last Wednesday, which left 17 dead and several more injured. But there’s another, quieter question so many of us are asking: How could he do it?
Sitting down for dinner with the people we love; saving leftovers for lunch tomorrow; watching our family and friends across the table or the sporting field or over coffee on the weekends – we’re all wondering How.
None of us know how a 19-year-old former student could walk into his old school carrying a semi-automatic assault rifle with the intent to kill.
But one person does. And now, he’s telling his story.
“I was almost a school shooter,” Aaron Stark begins his open letter to the world, published by Denver’s 9 News.
“I didn’t carry out anything, I didn’t hurt anyone. But in 1996, I almost did the worst possible thing.”
Stark’s letter reveals a horrific adolescence. Yes, he was bullied – “for being fat, for being smart, for not playing sports” – but his trauma ran deeper than that.
“I had a very chaotic and violent childhood, moving from place to place, having the people I was closest to be the ones who hurt me most,” his letter reads.
“I was shy, and sensitive, and smelled bad because I either had dirty clothes on that had not been washed in weeks or because I was filthy from not having a shower also for weeks at a time.”
He began hiding weapons at the places he frequented. He always had a knife or stick or brass knuckles close. At the height of his depression, Stark wanted the whole world to explode. And he was ready to make it happen.
Top Comments
When it is easier to access a gun than help for mental health issues of course it’s a massive problem. Suicides go largely unnoticed compared to a mass shootings but the gun suicide rate in America must be frightening. Bravo to Aaron for speaking out - so courageous for using his own experience as a very personal argument for gun control.