That the incident happened last week at a cinema in California that was screening a particular movie, might give a casual observer the impression that the killer was under the influence of the central idea of the movie, in a case of ‘the devil made me do it’ but we must probe more deeply.

While the central idea of the movie in which a totalitarian government permitted its citizens one night in a year, to commit any crime of their choice, murder inclusive, might be considered as excuse in a weird example of transposing fictional inclinations upon real-life realities, we should not ignore the big elephant in the room. That big elephant is widespread anger and bottled resentment, waiting for any king of trigger or cover.

Like molten magma seeking an opening to vent or spew out its fired charge and let it out of the belly of the earth, many carriers of unhealthy doses of anger and unresolved issues, walk about not knowing what trigger might lead them down a murderous alley.

Authorities described the incident as ‘random and unprovoked,’ which fits into the narrative that some of these carriers of unhealthy doses of anger, do not know what they may encounter in the environment that would make them ‘erupt.’ The fact that it was ‘unprovoked’ attack further underlies the seriousness of the matter at hand. Anthony Barajas and his friend who ‘reaped’ the fatal harvests made no contribution to the planting and development of the anger seed in the killer. Nobody wants this kind of harvest, whether we made any contribution to the growth and development of the seed, or not. In this part of the world, many of us love to reap where we have not sown but nobody wants to reap the sword and bullets of unprovoked wrath.

Merchants of rhetoric, language and consistent, intentional actions that steadily increase the level of anger across nations and communities around the world ought to be reminded of the
amorphous and unpredictable nature of this shifty customer that hides behind the shade of ‘random and unprovoked’ to unleash havoc. This is a customer that is often blinded by
unreason, meaning that it can turn the sword back on its owner.

As this unfortunate trend continues, the world must turn to the only source of lasting and satisfying protection from random and unprovoked violence.