America: shot through the heart, again
“The pervasiveness of guns in our society is destroying America.” — Alan Dershowitz, American legal expert and author
In Fort Myers, Fla. on Monday, firefighters were pouring bleach on the bloodstained pavement — blood from the young people who tried to run from the bullets when gunfire broke out at Club Blu during a teen party there Sunday night.
Sean Archilles, 14 and Ste’Fan Strawder, 18, were killed and at least 17 others injured at what was supposed to be “a safe place to have a good time,” according to the nightclub’s Facebook post.
And it should’ve been a safe place, with 10 armed security guards on duty for the organized event.
Another day, another senseless shooting in America. Let’s hope it never really feels that way for those of us watching from what we hope is a safe distance. Scrolling through the newswire every day, you’re more likely to see a story slugged “US-Shooting” than not. Universities. Schools. Workplaces. Shopping malls. Theatres. Churches. No place seems to be immune.
This latest shooting in the U.S. (at least it was as I write this) wasn’t an act of terrorism, according to the authorities, but I doubt that fact does little to assuage the shock and terror of those who lived through the experience, or the grief and pain of those whose children didn’t make it home Sunday night.
We are lucky here that shootings are fewer and farther between; that police forces and media outlets don’t have to send out Twitter alerts like they did recently in Baton Rouge: 2016-07-17, 12:59 PM ACTIVE SHOOTER: - Baton Rouge - 7 officers shot - 3 officers DEAD - Heavily armed gunman at large - Stay indoors Even in American cities where gun violence is prevalent, I’m sure ordinary citizens are not numb to it, and that every senseless killing leaves shock, sorrow and unanswered questions in its wake. People aren’t just headlines or statistics or nameless victims when they’re your loved ones or your neighbours.
Ask Marshall Bland, whose son, Marshall Bland Jr., was among those wounded at Club Blu. In an interview with News-press.com, Bland talked about his son’s experience and pleaded for peace.
“He’s fine, he made it home, and that’s important. But on a bigger scale there’s just too much violence going on in Fort Myers — not just Fort Myers, all over the world. With officers killing people, with people killing officers. … My heart goes out to the families, friends, loved ones. … Again, we all need to come together as one. There’s too much violence, too much killing.”
But no matter how many people might share Marshall Bland’s feelings, it’s hard to fathom how Americans can come together when there doesn’t seem to be much common ground in the conversation about guns; when gun rights activists and gun control advocates don’t seem to hear each other anymore.
Writing in The Daily Caller online, a contributor from the National Rifle Association of America’s Institute for Legislative Action flatly dismisses law professor Alan Dershowitz and other gun control advocates, noting “No matter how else they may couch their rhetoric — most recently as ‘gun safety’ proponents, gun control advocates simply hate guns and do not trust the American people to have them. It should surprise no one that the legal elites among them are perfectly willing to repeal or judicially nullify the Second Amendment entirely.”
Is the gun argument still really about the right to bear arms? What about the rights of innocent people not to get shot?
A year ago, Telegraph commentator Dan Hodges observed, “In retrospect Sandy Hook marked the end of the U.S. gun control debate. Once America decided killing children was bearable, it was over.”
The Washington Post’s Christopher Ingraham has acknowledged that Hodges might be right.
“…We haven’t gone more than eight days without a mass shooting in the U.S. since the start of 2015,” Ingraham noted last July. “That doesn’t leave a lot of time to grieve and regroup between shootings.”
And all the bleach in the world can’t erase the stain. Nothing can blot the pain.