We must not let mass shootings seem ‘normal’

It interrupted the “normal” of a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Well, maybe not all that normal, especially in the Philadelphia region, where Eagles fans were in the midst of delirium that is anything but normal for the long-suffering Birds’ faithful as the “Iggles” dismantled the Denver Broncos to improve to 8-1, best record in the NFL. “Normal.” Fans gathered at the Linc to cheer on their team. Or at their local watering hole. Or around the TV in the family room. “Normal.” Many of them no doubt started their day with another “normal” part of their Sunday routine. They worshipped at the church of their choosing.

It’s what we do on Sunday. It’s “normal.”

It’s what they were doing in a small town in Texas called Sutherland Springs.

There are only a couple hundred people in the entire town, about 40 miles outside San Antonio.

Many of them gathered at First Baptist Church for Sunday services. “Normal.” Then “normal” was shattered.

A young man dressed in black tactical-style gear entered this house of worship and defiled it, opening fire with an AR-15 semiautomatic weapon.

Before he was done, 26 people lay dead in the church. Another 16 others were wounded in what is now the worst mass shooting incident in Texas history.

But it’s not the worst in U.S. history. It was just a couple of weeks ago that a man opened fire from a 32nd-floor window at a hotel in Las Vegas on a crowded music festival on the street below. He killed 59 people.

This isn’t going to be about guns.

Or the Second Amendment. Or the kind of violence that increasingly interrupts “normal.” Don’t look for anything to be done in the wake of the latest mass shooting.

It didn’t after a couple of kids shot up their high school in Columbine, Colorado. Or after a deranged man entered a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., and opened fire.

Or even after the slaughter of the innocents, when a gunman armed with a similar weapon invaded Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., killing 20 children and six adults.

Or Fort Hood, Orlando or San Bernardino either. This is about “normal.” And perhaps the biggest danger coming out of the latest incident of a mass shooting in the United States.

That danger is the belief that this is in fact fast becoming the new “normal.”

Let’s make that be our first step.

There is nothing “normal” about this kind of activity.

It is deranged, criminal behavior that is slowly seeping into our consciousness.

If we are not safe at an elementary school, or in a church, where we retreat to find sanctuary from an angry world, is there anywhere that is safe? That is now our challenge. There will no doubt be a renewed wave of talk demanding new regulations on guns.

There will be arguments about how this suspect managed to get his guns, particularly in light of what appears to be indications that his military record should have made him ineligible to possess them.

Those discussions – and arguments – will go on.

But let’s start by committing to this.

There is nothing “normal” about what happened in that church in Sutherland Springs. Or in Columbine. Or Sandy Hook. It is anything but normal. Realizing that might just be the first step to stopping it from happening again.

If we are not safe at an elementary school, or in a church, where we retreat to find sanctuary from an angry world, is there anywhere that is safe? That is now our challenge.