America isn’t trying hard enough to stop mass shootings
America must do better than this. Last week’s massacre at an elementary school in a small Texas town was yet another horrific reminder that we collectively have failed to deal with gun violence, a problem that continues to kill too many of our fellow citizens.
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed last Tuesday in a classroom in Uvalde, Texas.
A little more than a week earlier, 10 people were shot in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York.
Time after time, these tragedies strike everyday people in the most ordinary places — stores, churches, schools. The incidents have become almost mind-numbingly common. The nonprofit Gun Violence Archive has counted at least 213 such shootings in the U.S. this year alone, defined as those in which four or more people were killed or injured. Last year had 693 incidents.
Besides the mounting toll of deaths and injuries, many other Americans have been scarred by seeing others killed next to them or having to flee for their lives. And so many parents and children and friends have been left to deal with the aching loss of their loved ones.
If it’s possible for the situation to be worse, consider this: Despite the genuine sadness that these incidents spark, our country is no closer to keeping them from happening again. To be honest, we’re not really trying.
Already, people are racing to their familiar political corners, trotting out all the old arguments. Democrats are renewing their calls for restrictions on guns, planning to force votes on measures that have gone nowhere in the past. Republicans dismiss any talk about gun legislation as a full-on attack on the Second Amendment. It’s a formula for doing nothing.
But is that what any of us really want? Is that how responsible people respond when faced with a major problem? No. Responsible people try to get past the blame game, put aside their reflexive defensiveness, and try to find real solutions.
If the most ardent gun control advocate and the staunchest Second Amendment supporter had been together Tuesday in that elementary school classroom, they would have done anything possible to stop the gunman. They would have joined forces in that moment and employed whatever talents or weapons they had available.
Why can’t we harness that same spirit of cooperation and shared purpose to head off future incidents?
Every time there’s a mass shooting, the satirical website “The Onion” posts the same headline on its story about the latest incident: “‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”.
In fact, our great country doesn’t have to accept mass shootings as inevitable.
But to bring about change, we — and the leaders we elect to represent us — must be willing to work together. To see these mass shootings as a plague on our nation that can be reduced, even if not eliminated, by prudent measures.
It’s not helpful to imply that the millions of responsible gun owners who feel strongly about their rights are responsible for the deaths in Texas. Not one law-abiding gun owner wanted those children to die. Not one wants to make it easier for killers to kill.
It’s also not helpful to assert an absolutist Second Amendment position that rejects any possible efforts to keep guns out of the hands of those who would slaughter innocent children and teacher — or grocery shoppers and clerks. Expanded background checks don’t take guns away from ordinary Americans.
Reasonable people ought to be able to find a way forward that preserves gun rights AND makes it harder for bad or unstable people to obtain the kind of lethal firepower that was deployed this week by a teenager in a fourth grade classroom.
We’re not sure what such a law would look like. But we think most reasonable people would be willing to put up with, say, the inconvenience of a more complete background check if it might prevent some of the slaughter.
On the day of the Texas shooting, Sen. Chris Murphy went to the U.S. Senate floor to plead with his colleagues to end the impasse. The Connecticut Democrat spoke of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in his state, which killed 20 children and six staff members, and urged Congress to do its job.
“Why are we here, if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde has gone through?” he asked.
Murphy acknowledged that Republican lawmakers might not agree with his particular legislative ideas. And he said it’s too much to expect any new law to prevent all future mass shootings.
But he said it should be possible to find common ground on some changes that might make mass shootings less likely.
We don’t pretend that effort would be easy. But it would be to our country’s shame if we don’t even try.
— Omaha World-Herald, May 26