You can either learn from history, or choose to ignore it and carry on repeating the same mistakes. To learn from history, you have to hear all sides of the story... not just the sides that tell you what you want to hear so you can sleep more easily at night.
We'll never get to hear the side from the older killer, John Muhammad, as he was executed in 2009. But to hear the side from the surviving killer Lee Malvo provides a fascinating insight into just how easy it is to plan and commit a murder spree in the USA. And if it was frighteningly easy in 2002, it's apparently just as easy now in 2023 if not easier.
It's only Feb 20th and already there have been 68 mass shootings in the USA, with 104 people killed and 269 injured. Statistically, Americans are far less safe right now than while these two men were on the loose back in 2022.
The Internet is strangely light on the background of these two men... one a decorated soldier, the other a Jamaican immigrant. What should be shocking is how relatively ordinary they were, according to the people they came into contact with, but instead it's tragically familiar.
One particularly telling moment is when the owner of the shooting range (where the killers honed their skills) gets in a muddle as to whether owning guns is a "God given" right or a constitutional right. You suspect he wants to believe the former, but has to concede the latter. And when he makes a point of telling us that what a gun is used for is "up to the individual", the camera lingers just long enough to see the self-doubt settle into his eyes.
