The unthinkable, again

With the tragic predictability of a clock striking the hour, another American school has turned into a scene of carnage, inflicted by a student bearing heavy weaponry, guns blazing. In just minutes, the killer left 10 dead. Ten injured. More than 1,300 students and staff traumatized in the classrooms and halls of Santa Fe High School in Texas, in eerie echo of the massacre of 17 just three months ago at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

With an important distinction: the firearms that caused such bloodshed in Texas were not military-grade weaponry but a garden-variety .38 pistol and shotgun, borrowed from dad. Plus weaponized pressure cookers, plus pipe bombs.

There’s a virus loose in America today. Or, more accurately, a number of viruses that are especially virulent when they intersect.

Something is clearly wrong with young American men, too many of whom are seething with rage; they have been behind the trigger in shooting after shooting.

White nationalism is resurgent. Just as Charleston’s Dylann Roof or Oregon’s Christopher Harper-Mercer harbored hateful racism, Santa Fe’s Dimitrios Pagourtzis had a history of fetishizing neo-Nazi imagery.

Parts of the culture in dark corners of the internet worship mass shooters as idols, fomenting a social psychosis.

And, yes, guns and ammunition are far too easy for angry and unstable young men to obtain.

These forces, each potent on their own, become killers when combined.

In the face of such a serious sickness, leaders in Washington — we’re looking at you, President Trump — pretend they can encourage more teachers to carry guns and then call it a day.

Give Texas’ leaders more credit than that. Friday, Gov. Greg Abbott, a National Rifle Association stalwart, didn’t stick to the tired “thoughts and prayers” script, or claim it was too soon to discuss preventive measures. He committed, at least in concept, to action — including exploring restrictions on the purchase of guns.

For his part, Trump repeated platitudes. We must “do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools, and do everything we can to keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others.” Such as?

Everyone remembers what happened after Parkland. The President pretended to be serious about change. He convened a bipartisan roundtable. He pledged to take on the NRA to require universal background checks, and raise the minimum firearm purchase age, among other baby steps.

Then, the bravado he had flaunted faded away. Every now and then, the President talks like a bold problem-solver. When push comes to shove, he acts like an NRA flunky.