ABOUT MASS SHOOTING TERROR

A national epidemic of mass shootings, with a particular focus on schools as targets, shows no signs of abating anytime soon as the volatile mix of guns and mental health continues to go unaddressed legislatively. It’s time to redefine what’s happening here: Monday’s school shooting in St. Louis wasn’t just a crazed act of a lone gunman. This was terrorism.

What’s the difference if the scenes are screaming, panicked people running from the collapsing World Trade Center buildings or screaming, panicked people fleeing a public school? All experienced terror inflicted by deranged people who had, in their twisted minds, found a rationale for committing mass violence. Whether it was the al-Qaida hijackers behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or shooters like Orlando Harris on Monday, the common motive is to inflict mass bloodshed and maximum casualties.

Harris punched or shot his way into the Central Visual and Performing Arts High School on Monday, then was quoted by a survivor as telling his would-be victims: “You are all going to (expletive) die.”

... Despite metal detectors and active-shooter drills at schools, gaping vulnerabilities still exist. AR-15-style firearms like the one Harris used remain largely unrestricted for adults, with few exceptions. High-capacity magazines and ammunition remain easily accessible. Harris brought magazines and 600 rounds with him.

Conservative lawmakers and Gov. Mike Parson refuse to consider restrictions, citing mythical gun rights that simply do not exist in the Second Amendment. Because of Missouri lawmakers’ inexplicable intransigence, future domestic terrorists like Harris remain free to strike again because no one has the courage to deny them their weapons of choice.