Reflections on the Era of Mass Shootings
It would be the start of their senior year of high school and all that it entails: Homecoming, applying to colleges, senior pictures, prom, graduation. The end of an era of youth and the beginning of adulthood. A seemingly endless array of possibilities. I go through this weird mental exercise, imagining all the things they should be doing but are not. You see, my son was a first grader the year of the Sandy Hook massacre. Anytime he reaches a significant milestone, my mind briefly drifts to that classroom of kids his age who should be doing the same.
The collective trauma from gun violence in our culture far surpasses the numbers that are tabulated for us. Anyone who can empathize bears some of the pain of this festering wound in our culture of gun love. We know that in our country the number of deaths by firearms is staggering when compared with any other country. We know that deaths by firearms now outnumber deaths by car accidents. “How do you tolerate it?” we are continually asked by people from other countries. To them, we look as if we love guns more than people.
How did we get to this dystopia? With every mass shooting, thoughts and prayers go floating out into the void, but nothing of real significance happens to reduce the number or severity of these tragedies? Also tragic is that we know from the data and from what has worked in other countries how to curb gun violence. To begin, we need to reduce access to military assault rifles and the high-capacity magazines they hold.
Sadly, calls for such bans inevitably lead to bogus claims that the Second Amendment prevents such bans, suggesting that no controls can ever be placed on firearms or ammunition. So let’s take a look at the actual wording of that amendment: “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The word Militia itself has military connotations, but, okay, we’ve decided that any citizen is somehow part of a real or imagined “Militia.” I'm still clueless as to how we’ve concluded that the words “well-regulated” mean absolutely no regulation whatsoever.
The late Justice Scalia, heralded by conservatives for his affirmation of the right of individuals to bear arms, nevertheless wrote in his District of Columbia v. Heller opinion, “Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited.” Laying out certain exceptions, he wrote that such a right is “not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” We had a federal assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004, which targeted military style semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines. It was never struck down as unconstitutional. It was simply allowed to expire. During the ten years of the ban, the use of assault weapons in crime declined by more than two-thirds. How many mass shootings since the expiration might have been less deadly or eliminated altogether if this ban had been renewed and enforced? Why don’t we consider certain weapons that have a proven history of mass casualty a threat to all we hold dear and ban them from our society?
Having more “good guys with guns” readily available is not the answer. As we saw at Uvalde, 376 law enforcement officers descended on the scene. There were many systemic failures that occurred, but the bottom line is an 18-year-old with an assault rifle massacred 19 schoolchildren and two teachers. (See: The Texas Tribune article)
How can we feel safe with the suggestion that more trained people with guns need to be on the scene when we hear stories like this? How about just preventing that one person who should not have such a weapon from having such a weapon?
What can an average person who is concerned about this issue do? Call your legislator, write letters to the editor, support gun safety initiatives (such as community education about safe firearm storage practices), participate in protests/demonstrations, and, most importantly, VOTE and GET OUT THE VOTE. There are many organizations including Giffords.org, Everytown for Gun Safety, the Brady Center, North Carolinians Against Gun Violence, and numerous others, which provide an opportunity to get involved for those who feel ready to take concrete action on this issue.
In spite of the Republican supermajority reluctant to consider any gun control, we still have Governor Cooper who is determined to do whatever he can to protect North Carolinians from gun violence. Cooper signed an executive order last March creating NC’s Office of Violence Prevention (one of only six such statewide efforts in the country), which is coordinating efforts to reduce violent crime, tackle both intentional and careless gun injuries and deaths, and work to keep people safe. The governor recently embarked on a new initiative to reduce gun deaths and shooting injuries by giving out hundreds of free gun safes and tens of thousands of gun cable locks. (See: Governor Cooper press release)
There is also some hope on the horizon on the federal level, as the Biden administration recently announced 13 new actions that have been taken or will be taken to reduce gun violence by maximizing the benefits of the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), including new steps to keep guns out of dangerous hands, ensure BSCA’s mental health funding helps those dealing with trauma resulting from gun violence, make schools safer, and expand community violence interventions. (See: President Biden fact sheet) The president stated he is doing everything he can to reduce gun violence, but Congress must do more. We need to hold our elected representatives’ feet to the fire to make sure they are doing all they can to support the actions outlined in that legislation.
We owe it to those would-be rising seniors from Sandy Hook Elementary, and to all firearms victims and survivors everywhere, to do all we can to stem the tide of gun violence in our state and country.