It’s all about guns, not video games or Ritalin

AS OTHERS SEE IT

Too many doors. Abortion. Video games. Ritalin. Those are some of the explanations trotted out by Republicans and the National Rifle Association in the wake of Friday’s mass shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas. The willingness to say anything – no matter how ludicrous – would be laughable if not for the fact that 10 people are dead and that refusing to acknowledge the role played by this country’s lax gun laws only paves the way for the next tragedy.

Most of those killed as classes were getting underway at Santa Fe High School were students looking forward to the start of summer. Among them: Jared Black, who had just turned 17 and had been planning to celebrate with a weekend pool party; Shana Fisher, a ther had legally obtained, not a semiautomatic rifle. Opponents of gun control have seized on these factors as evidence of the futility of expanded background checks or an assault weapons ban. But it has always been understood that no single measure will be the answer for every crime.

There are some hopeful signs. Companies increasingly are concluding that guns make for bad business, and states long loath to control guns, Vermont and Florida, have enacted modest reforms. Even Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, R, conceded that thoughts and prayers – the traditional official nonresponse to mass shootings – are no longer enough. “We need to do more than just pray for the victims and their families,” he said. “It’s time in Texas that we take action to step up and make sure this tragedy is never repeated ever again in the history of the state of Texas.”