When heroes defend the helpless

NYTimes article on the man who stopped a shooting in the Coloroado incident last week.

shootings tend to be "copycat" crimes by the mentally unstable, but the Times also notes another trend: Fighting back:

Mr. Castillo’s actions as the latest act of self-sacrifice by students who now find themselves on the front lines of fighting off gunmen in America’s schools. His death came only a week after a student at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte was killed as he stepped in to stop another gunman on campus.

Kendrick Castillo was killed while trying to stop one of the assailants during a shooting at his school in Highlands Ranch, Colo., on Tuesday.CreditCreditRachel Short, via Associated Press

Right now, the meme of "toxic masculinity" is big among the so called feminists in the media, but there is a counter story, about Masculinity being about protecting the weak from harm.

This meme is as old a Siegfried the Dragon killer, or as new as the latest Avengers story, where Ironman dies to save his fellow avengers and the world.

Yet most films are about serial killers or revenge, making the murderers and drug sellers the hero of the film. And justifying murder as revenge.  What's wrong with this picture?

and of course, the internet is full of sites that become an echo chamber or hatred that assure the mentally unstable that their hatred is justified, as is a violent revenge on those they hate.

Sigh.

GetReligion has the backstory: The killers were copying the original Columbine killers, aiming at Christians students and deep into Satanic things on the internet. They were primed by the anti Christian memes that Christians hate gays and trans, so it's okay to kill them. But of course no one will say this out loud.

one short comment:

After Columbine, I remember two girls telling Larry King on CNN that the shooters shot a girl after she said she believed in God. This became quite a meme until the press and cops debunked it, saying the tapes contradicted the story. Apparently the Christian girl (two were named as the possible victim) were not heard saying anything on the surveillance videos.

So the meme disappeared and Christians were ridiculed if they suggested that their Children were killed for their faith.

Months later, a Catholic girl who had been hit and spent weeks in ICU recovered and confirmed her reply was the source of this "urban legend": She was crying "God save me", and when confronted, admitted she believed in God and was shot point blank with a shotgun blast for saying this.

Sigh.

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update: CNA report on Castillo and his family.