Turn loss and pain into action

Recent shootings in other states echo Virginia’s own, which led to new laws

If the people of Boulder, Colorado, need some hope and strength today, perhaps they can find some from Virginia. The city of Virginia Beach is less than two years removed from a deadly workplace shooting which remains a source of deep heartache. Twelve people died and four others were wounded when a city employee opened fire in a municipal building.

Rather than resigning themselves to helplessness, the people of Virginia mobilized and, in a matter of months, enacted new restrictions on firearm purchasing and ownership. It was proof, for once, that we need not be hopeless in the face of such carnage.

We have the power to affect change.

Two years ago, families were robbed of mothers and fathers. Wives lost husbands and husbands lost wives. These were friends and neighbors, coworkers and fellow church members, cherished loved ones whose lives were cut short in another senseless act of gun violence.

Hampton Roads knows all too well how the people of Boulder are feeling today as they try to make sense of their own tragedy. It’s the same in so many other communities — too many communities — across the nation.

Orlando, Las Vegas, Newtown, Pittsburgh, Sutherland Springs, El Paso, Parkland and on and on and on.

Virginia Beach isn’t even the only city in the commonwealth to endure such horror, not with the tragedy in Blacksburg nearly 14 years ago.

Boulder may find similar support from its Colorado neighbors — from Aurora, site of a theater attack in 2012, and Columbine, where two shooters at the high school shocked the nation with their violent rampage in 1999.

Have we lost the capacity for surprise when these events unfold? Where survivors once expressed disbelief to be involved in a mass shooting, now we hear resignation, acceptance, even anticipation.

“It seemed like all of us had imagined we’d be in a situation like this at some point in our lives,” James Bentz, 57, told a Denver Post reporter on Monday.

He had the misfortune of stopping at a particular grocery store on a particular day at a particular time — the same time another man opened fire, killing 10 people, including a Boulder police officer who reportedly was responding to a call for help.

We can’t believe it could happen here, we used to say. Now we expect it. Mass casualty shootings — obscene acts of gun violence — in our schools and workplaces and churches and synagogues and grocery stores and nightclubs and music festivals.

The White House lowered the American flag atop the building to half-staff Tuesday to honor the Boulder victims. It had been raised to full-staff only one day earlier, after a period of mourning for the victims of several shootings in Atlanta last week. That’s how frequent these events occur.

Of course, it’s not just mass shootings that show the profound American dysfunction when it comes to guns. According to the Gun Violence Archive, there were 43,536 firearm deaths in 2020 — 19,380 homicides or accidental deaths and 24,156 suicides. Nearly 40,000 people were injured.

Nearly 300 children under the age of 12 were killed by firearms and another 700 were injured. Sixty law enforcement officers were killed and another 348 injured. There were more than 600 mass shootings and, yes, 1,462 confirmed cases of defensive use.

In the aftermath of the Virginia Beach shooting, the General Assembly enacted 10 new laws aimed at protecting legal access to firearms and to keep these weapons out of the hands of those with malicious intent, a history of violence or a lack of mental competence.

Colorado can do the same, as can any state, should its citizens resolve to do so. And the people there can find hope in Virginia’s experience.

So find courage in the darkness, Boulder. Be brave in the face of such evil. Resolve to make your tragedy a catalyst for something better.

Change is possible. We’ve seen it happen in Virginia.