Media Narrative After Shooting - Christianity Is The Problem Not The Solution

There were signs of spring everywhere -- in the bright morning sun, the pink flowers lining trees beside the parking lot, the signs for Easter services. As a small gray car rounded the bend, security cameras caught little children pumping their legs on swing sets in the background -- the last carefree moment any of them will remember about this day. As they have in too many cities, Nashville's moms and dads went about their days, not realizing they'd said goodbye for the last time.

For the seven families whose lives changed forever Monday morning, there is no making sense of the heartbreak. But for one set of parents, it's a unique kind of pain -- knowing their daughter is the one responsible. Norma Hale, whose Facebook page is full of proud mom moments, woke up Tuesday with the knowledge that her 28-year-old child's last words to a friend were "I don't want to live." Moments later, Audrey Hale shot through the double glass doors she'd walked through hundreds of times as a Covenant school student, ready to kill.

Miles away, a stunned Averianna Patton sat holding her phone, rereading the text that something bad was about to happen. "Audrey!" she had frantically written back. "You have so much more life to live. I pray God keeps and covers you."

But it was too late. Hale was walking the hallways of her old Christian school, gunning down anyone in her path. A beloved custodian. The revered head of the school. A favorite substitute teacher. The senior pastor's only daughter. A nine-year-old boy and girl. In a split second, the buzz of classrooms gave way to sirens and school alarms. READ MORE