What if that shooting guy had been a Thru...

On December 14th, 2012, the Sandy Hook school shooting shocked me and countless other people worldwide. I was one of the people who spent hours online trying to know and to understand a bit more, if possible.

One of the things that impressed me the most was… a question posted to a backpacking forum, just a few hours after the shooting. Now that the first impact of the shooting on our minds is over, I feel it may be useful to republish, verbatim, both that question and its explanation from the person who posted it:

“Would that 22 guy done that if he was Thru Hiker”?

Maybe we do need more hiking trails funded and supported by the Forest Service. Suicide has always been high in teen boys but now they want to go out in violence for varies reasons…especially these days. Seems to me we need more programs to get people hiking.

That question, as I said, came out when only very little information was available. Besides, I am no doctor, so I really have no idea if such a strategy would have helped, or even been feasible at all, with that particolar person. Still, that question deeply impressed me, and I feel it should be included in general discussions on how to prevent similar tragedies in the future.