A 20-year-old man took the lives of 20 elementary school children on Friday, one for every year of his life.

His actions shattered Christmas for the families of those so young, so innocent.

And then there were the adult victims, most of them involved in educating the kindergartners to fourth-graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Newton, a community of about 27,000 people — a city a little smaller than Sierra Vista.

Attacked were young children in the beginning stages of their education. Killed were adults who work in an under appreciated profession, one dedicated to being the instructors of America’s sons and daughters, dedicated to helping them see their future worth in our society.

So many families, the survivors of the young victims and of the adults, are grieving in that small Connecticut community. But the process has spread far beyond Newton, far beyond Connecticut. It has reached every part of the United States and beyond.

We will never know what caused the idiot — I will not honor him by calling him a man and I will not have one drop of ink be used in naming him for he’s not worth it when all the blood he shed on the 12th day before Christmas — took away the joy of so many.

We far away from the scene of the tragedy, will never know of the presents already wrapped, the presents to be wrapped, the last minute shopping for a present for one of the dead. The innocence lost can never be found again, to include the traumatized children and adults who survived.

What the future held for those 20 children who died, unknowing as to why they were targeted, also will remain a forever mystery.

Would one of them have become the discoverer of a cure for breast cancer, or for any other disease which plaques human kind?

Would one of them have become president of the United States?

Would one of them have become the recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize?

Would one of them have become a teacher to guide a future generation of elementary school children into the light of knowledge?

We will never know the answer to those and many more questions. Their deaths, as that of the adults, stopped whatever they would have become to better us.

The day before their deaths, nearly 60 soldiers of the 11th Theater Tactical Signal Brigade returned home from Afghanistan. Many were met by their spouses and children. They hugged and kissed their loved ones. They shed tears of joy, as did their spouses and children, at returning home safely.

As adults, the soldiers knowingly took an oath to defend our nation. They knew the unwritten obligation meant they could be killed or wounded.

But, those young victims and the adults who died in the small elementary school in Newtown did not sign up to give their lives to be educated or to educate their young charges. This is not Afghanistan or some other place in the world where to be ignorant is considered better than to be educated.

However, it doesn’t mean some ignorant steps are not be taken by some in America. Already the ugly head of politicizing the disaster is happening. The gun control issue is again a matter of posturing.

The extreme left is using the disaster as a rallying call for more stringent gun control. Those on the right are opposed to any such actions.

The Second Amendment of the Constitution is clear on the issue of Americans having a right to guns. It encapsulates in 22 words the following: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” When the amendment was written, rifles were muzzle loaders, only capable of firing one shot at a time, as were pistols.

Now we have handguns which have magazines holding much more than one round and rifles which are automatic killing machines, spewing out rounds rather rapidly. At least — so far — when it comes to the Newtown shooting, the National Rifle Association is being muted, if you can put a silencer over its collective mouths, and not saying inane things like “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

But it seems those on the left can’t wait until the mothers, the fathers and other family members and friends, mourn their losses knowing what would have been a day of opening presents will now be one of sadness.

Let us not make this another political circus.

For God’s sake members of Congress and the administration cannot even decide if they want to jump off the fiscal cliff, or not. So, don’t think they are in any shape to decide if there should be more stringent gun rules or not.

The issue should not be looked at in the heat of what happened in Newtown but be examined in the cool logic of how we Americans must address it.

We owe that to those who died in Friday’s shooting. Let it be the country’s gift to them and their families.

And, that’s as I see it.