Red flags existed; we didn't notice

Reports initially said absolutely no red flags existed to predict the NIU gunman would open fire on a classroom full of students.

Red flags are not painted over night.

Each blotch of a person's painful life is splattered on those flags bit by bit.

Already we know that the gunman was quiet, wore all black, and was a loner in high school.

According to newspaper reports, after high school, he spent time in a psychiatric facility because of behavioral problems and used to cut himself for attention. He had been taking medication for anxiety.

Someone somewhere saw the red flags.

Sadly, I have no doubt that looking back through the shooter's life as a young child in elementary school and a young adolescent in high school will reveal many red flags, enough to paper the walls of the room in which he caused so much pain.

The problem is, and always has been, too many of us are color blind.

Mary E. Keenan

Schaumburg