Another mass shooting and 21 lives lost

The country was rocked once again, on Tuesday, with the news that 21 had been killed in another mass shooting, this time in Uvalde, Texas.

An 18-year-old gunman shot and killed 19 children and two teachers in his rampage. Politicians wasted no time — for better or worse — in addressing the incident.

On the Senate floor, on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said there is a plague upon this nation.

“The truth is, one nation under guns,” he said, quoting a poem by Amanda Gorman, the poet laureate who spoke at President Joe Biden’s inauguration.

Gorman posted the poem to Twitter, hours after the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

“One nation under guns. That is simply heartbreaking — heart- breaking to think that this is the legacy that older generations are leaving behind for young Americans, one nation under guns,” Schumer said. “It doesn’t have to be that way. Parents don’t need to drop their kids off at school and wonder if their kid will be next.”

He is right — many parents do worry about their children’s safety when they are at school. He’s also right in saying that shouldn’t be something they have to worry about.

We’ve mentioned before in this column that before the Columbine massacre, we hardly heard about mass shootings at schools. After that incident, however, there seemed to be an uptick in those tragedies and unfortunately, it’s continued to trend upward.

Schumer said, on Wednesday, that he’s willing to work with Republicans, but he also acknowledged that there is no imminent gun bill and the chamber will likely depart, today, for their scheduled Memorial Day recess.

So as the politicians enjoy their time off, America is left in shock and disbelief that mass school shootings are still happening.

“It makes no sense why we can’t do common-sense things to try to prevent some of this from happening,” Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said in a news report. “It’s just unbelievable how we got here as a society.”

We don’t agree with Manchin on much, but that last sentence is something we do agree with. Is tighter gun control the answer? Some believe it is. That’s still not going to keep guns out of the hands of criminals or those who want to get one bad enough.

Maybe after the Memorial Day break, the politicians on Capitol Hill will be able to reach a consensus on how best to handle this situation.

Meanwhile, we get to deal with the loss of 21 more lives due to senseless violence.

FOCUS

Lawmakers seem to be at a loss for a solution to stop mass shootings — and gun violence in general.