Parental Guidance Required

Youth Violence & Family Breakdown

In October of this year, a deranged young man named Christopher Harper-Mercer walked onto the campus of Umpqua Community College in Oregon and opened fire, killing nine people and injuring nine more.

The following weeks featured a blizzard of media attention, most of it focusing on how such a tragedy could have been avoided. The usual suspects were called up—shortcomings in the care of mental illness, too-loose gun control laws, the trauma of childhood bullying. But the media studiously avoided two significant facts: First, Harper-Mercer specifically targeted Christians, and second, his parents were divorced.

Two Neglected Facts

The first fact is...