‘Son Of Sam’ David Berkowitz Calls Recent Shootings ‘Senseless’
A new voice has emerged from the unlikeliest of places to sound off on the recent massacres in Aurora, Colorado and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. David Berkowitz, one of New York’s most notorious serial killers under the name “Son of Sam,” has called the recent slew of killings “senseless” and hopes for a day when society takes the “glory out of guns.”
Speaking gently from his own jail cell in upstate New York, Berkowitz muses, “It’s all senseless,” regarding the highly-publicized massacres that have recently plagued our nation. Though he is serving six consecutive 25-years-to-life sentences, one for each of his fallen victims, Berkowitz paints a picture of a man repentant for his crimes. Berkowitz, now a born-again Christian, laments the recent string of shootings, specifically noting Aurora’s “Dark Knight Massacre” and Wisconsin’s Sikh temple shooting, reports ABC News.
“Society has to take the glory out of guns. Young people have no business carrying a gun. I would love to speak bluntly to those gangbanging teens and wanna-bes and tell them prison is nothing like what you think. If you’re packing a gun, you’re making a big mistake, and you’ll regret it,” Berkowitz says.
Arrested in 1977 for his heinous crimes, Berkowitz now wants his life to serve as a cautionary tale to discourage youth from lives of crime, reports NY Daily. “I’m looking beyond gun control. That’s for the legislators to wrangle with,” he said. “My hope is just that young people would understand just how terrible this violence is. When they use a gun against someone else, they ruin their lives too,” he said. “It’s not worth it.”
The now-59-year-old Berkowitz prefers not to talk about his 24-year-old self, whom he calls lost, tormented, confused, and under demonic control.
Praying for brighter days in our society, Berkowitz stresses once again, “One day, I hope that guns will lose their glamour,” concluding, “I know that’s a bit simplistic, but to me the whole tragedy is that young people are losing direction and don’t value life or have no clue why they’re on this Earth.”
With a contemporary foothold reflecting on Berkowitz’s own crimes, it’s hard to imagine such a man musing over the senselessness of gun violence. It leads one to wonder whether James Holmes will ever hold similar sentiments, decades down the line, should he live to see the day that he regrets his own crimes.
