Invoking Emmett Till’s 1955 murder for gun reform

Can blood and fragments of human flesh motivate politicians to act reasonably on firearm reforms?

The question was raised shortly after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 grade schoolers and two teachers were slaughtered with a military-grade weapon, easily purchased days prior, by a deranged 18-year-old.

Some argue that America needs its “Emmett Till” moment. The idea gained traction among journalists and advocates for gun reform after the Robb Elementary school shooting.

The proposal invokes the historic photo of 14-yearold Emmett, horribly disfigured by racist attackers who tortured and murdered him in Mississippi in 1955. His mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open casket and days of public viewing. Her bravery has long been credited with moving people to confront the vileness of racism, as well as a justice system that allowed white men to brutally kill a child and then be quickly acquitted by their peers.

The wish for an open casket of a Uvalde victim doesn’t stem from an irresponsible desire to capitalize on human suffering or grief. Rather, it’s born of desperation.

People are distraught.

They don’t know what to do to head off another mass shooting. And it’s true that most people don’t know what a high-powered semi-automatic weapon does to a human body, much less to that of a small child.

DNA had to be used to identify many of the children killed at Robb Elementary school, presumably because what was left of their faces and bodies was unrecognizable.

Some in the media are asking whether there’s a complicity to “sanitizing” the overwhelming grief and a full recounting of the violence. But telling those truths, in raw detail, collides with our community norms of being respectful in times of grieving.

At best, a graphic photo might pry open a tiny crevice in the brick wall of deflection that mass shootings generate from the Second Amendment’s staunchest advocates.

Any leverage gained would probably be most effective in motivating voters of both parties who already support limited firearm reforms such as expanded background checks, red flag laws and raising age limits for certain weapons like AR-15S.

If shown these gruesome photos, people could easily be repulsed and become even more likely to distance themselves from any sense of responsibility over the children’s deaths.

Still, one of the preeminent scholars of the Till case sees value in showing a mass shooting victim’s photo, if the family members chose to allow it.

Devery S. Anderson wrote the 2015 book, “Emmett Till: The Murder that Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement.” In an email, Anderson noted the “power in seeing — in photos, or filing past an open casket.” Nothing else can compare, he explains, certainly not a worded description.

“So many people forget quickly because to them, it is all just a news story, or series of stories that involve people they don’t know,” he wrote. “Often, though, we forget because the pain of remembering is too hard. The pain of remembering and doing nothing is even harder.”

If the nation is to unlock the legislative stalemate around what is so often compiled under the terms “meaningful” and “common sense” gun reform, it must unwind the deflective thinking that surrounds firearms.

Simply being forced to look at a dead child, or rather what might be left of his or her physical body, will offer some leverage, but it won’t break that shield of denial.