Gunboy

After the horrifying and gut-wrenching violence in Connecticut last week, a lot of news reports refer to the killer as the "gunman."  This bothers me.  It implies that he was a man.  He wasn't.  He was a 20 year old boy with way too much power at his hands, and way too much darkness inside him to handle on his own.  He wasn't a gunman.  He was a gunboy.  And anytime we give boys such power without guiding them into the burden and responsibility of adulthood, of manhood, we can expect they will mess it up, in either small ways, or tragically, in ways that wound a whole nation.  You can be 16 and be a man, or you can be 53 and still be a boy.  It's not about age, it's about the hard work it takes to mature, grow up, face your demons, and let your ego die.  But for God's sake, let's not put assault rifles in the hands of another gunboy.