*After the Sandy Hook massacre in December 2012 I wrote: “Did the Devil Take the 13-Hour Flight from China to Connecticut?” Reportedly, this weekend’s mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and 13 hours later in Dayton, Ohio brought to mind the similar timelines from China to Connecticut…13 hours. Here is a re-print of the 2012 article.
[The Associated Press reported that on December 14, 2012, just before 8AM in central China, a knife-wielding man injured 22 school children and one adult. There were no casualties, and all the victims are expected to recover. China is 13 hours ahead of the United States which means while the ordeal was taking place in China, it would have been around 7PM (EST) December 13th in the U.S. where children were probably wrapping gifts, and helping with decorations, while visions of Christmas presents were dancing in their tiny heads.
Unfortunately, 20 American children, along with 8 adults would meet a deadlier fate just 14 hours later in Newtown Connecticut. The similarities of the two devastating incidents are uncanny: the ages of the Chinese children ranged from 6 – 11, the American children 5 – 10; both incidents happened at an elementary school in the early morning and included adults; and both suspects reportedly suffered some mental challenges.
Another strange coincidence is the timeline: it’s about a 13-hour flight from China to Connecticut, and one could wonder if it were the devil himself – bent on finishing what he started in China – who caught a flight to incarnate and shed more innocent blood on this continent. As the Sandy Hook school massacre continues to unfold it’s hard to grapple with and make any sense out of such a dastardly deed that could only have been orchestrated from the depths of hell.
Although some of those injured in China are in critical condition, it could have been a very different outcome if China had no strict gun control laws. In a CNN Hong Kong report, Dr. Ding Xueliang, a Harvard-educated sociologist at the University of Science and Technology in Hong Kong said, “The huge difference between this case and the U.S. is not the suspect, nor the situation, but the simple fact he did not have an effective weapon.” Perhaps China is ahead of the United States in more ways than one.]
Larry Buford is the author of “Things Are Gettin’ Outta Hand” and “Book To The Future” (Amazon)
E-mail: [email protected]
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