Children sacrificed to national weakness

Once, when I thought of child sacrifice, I thought of ancient shibboleths.

In Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus kills his daughter, Lavinia, at the dinner table, after she has been raped and maimed by attackers. “Die, die, Lavinia!” he cries. “And thy shame with thee.” Small sacrifice to save your honor.

On “Game of Thrones,” Stannis Baratheon orders his sweet child Shireen burned at the stake, as she cries out for the father she adores, so black magic will melt the snows. Small sacrifice to get your starving army on the march.

Now, however, I think of child sacrifice as a modern phenomenon, a barbaric one that defines this country. We are sacrificing children — not only the ones who die but also those who watch and those who fear the future.

Children having their tomorrows taken away. Small sacrifice if we can keep our guns. Why not let every deranged loner buy an assault weapon?

America is not a mythical kingdom ruled by fickle gods or black magic. Our fate is not in the stars. It is in ourselves. It is within our power to stop schools from becoming killing fields.

We have simply decided not to do it.

The shooter in Uvalde, Texas, slipped into a fourthgrade classroom at Robb Elementary School, ominously announced, “Look what we have here,” and fired more than 100 rounds.

The local police did nothing to stop the human sacrifice. How can you justify keeping assault weapons on the open market when police officers don’t engage with them, even with kids’ lives on the line?

A slain teacher’s husband died of a heart attack after he took flowers to her memorial at the school. They had four kids. Who will take care of them?

What is wrong with this country? Republicans think they’re showing their toughness by preventing curbs on guns. But it’s a huge American weakness.

When a gunman killed 35 people in Tasmania in 1996, the Australian government passed such commonsense gun laws six months later that there has been only one mass shooting since.

When an anti-Islamic extremist in Christchurch killed 51 people in two mosques in 2019, the New Zealand government banned most semi-automatic weapons 26 days later. There have been no mass shootings since.

The political debates here are empty and soulless, with Democrats dodging the issue and Republicans hardening even on mild proposals like universal background checks, which have overwhelming public approval.

Republicans throw up a fog of nonsensical suggestions. Before speaking to the NRA, Ted Cruz said schools should have only one entry point, with an armed guard. Guns don’t kill people. Doors do.

“Meaningful policy discussions over guns or voting or public health have left the room,” said my colleague Elizabeth Williamson, author of the new book “Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.” “Spewing conspiracy theories and bench-clearing nonsense around mass shootings, elections and coronavirus is becoming a tribal signifier for some on the right.”

The Republicans are doing everything they can to stop women from having control over their own bodies and doing nothing to stop the carnage against kids.

We’ve become a country of cowards, so terrified of the unholy power of gun worship that no sacrifice of young blood is too great to appease it.