Evil to the U.S.: You Can’t Catch Me
Yesterday’s events in Florida brought to the forefront of our minds, once again, the issue of gun violence in schools. My heart breaks for the families of the victims of this completely senseless act. If there is evil in the world, this is its embodiment. This is one of its purest forms of expression.
The change that this particular form of violence has brought about in our society weighs on me almost daily since my return to the United States eight months ago. Nearly every day, I walk or run past the Columbine memorial just a block from my house. This morning as I ran past the memorial with the sun rising behind it and the naked branches of nearby trees reflected in its marble, the evil that caused it seemed a little nearer, a little more vivid.
The same thoughts occur to me every day when I take my children to their elementary school. All of the doors of the school are locked, with entry controlled from the inside. Each hallway has a big metal gate at its entrance…just in case. My children occasionally participate in intruder drills at school. One day as we walked home, my five-year-old nephew explained that they had had a drill where they stayed in their classrooms with the lights off and practiced being really quiet. I am not sure how to explain the subject to my very imaginative first grader, or even whether I should.
I can’t pretend to have any of the solutions. I come from a northern Idaho community where most households own hunting rifles. My father used his guns on multiple occasions when I was growing up, once because a black bear was routinely marauding our livestock feed supply. My husband is a U.S. Marine. I understand the purpose of responsible gun ownership. I also understand that the spirit of the Second Amendment is to form a “well-regulated Militia,” not personal security.
Mental health concerns also regularly come up in the aftermath of a mass shooting. But where do we, as a society, draw the line about how to address mental health issues? The answer must lie somewhere between believing everyone else is crazy and taking away their rights as citizens and being completely hands off, only treating those people who declare themselves mentally ill.
What the media, pundits, and politicians tend not to discuss as much is their own role in describing these events to a fearful public. Last night, CNN published a story headlined “Parkland shooting is now among the 10 deadliest mass shootings in modern U.S. history.” When I read this headline, I was struck by the sense I had that this is just sensationalism, with no real value in comforting the families, informing the public, or finding a solution. Other headlines further the sense that we are flailing as we try to conduct a constructive national conversation on how best to protect our children at school. “Student to lawmakers: We are children. You are the adults;” “Deaths from gun violence: how the U.S. compares to the rest of the world.” “Trump calls for steps that ‘Make a difference’ in school shootings, without specifics.” We hear finger pointing, that Congress should do more, that the President should make a plan.
As I have said, I can’t pretend to offer a solution. What I do know is that until we as a nation and as a society can put aside our political and personal agendas and have a meaningful dialogue, this evil will continue to ravage our communities. It doesn’t matter that Parkland is among the ten deadliest. Or that we should outlaw a particular kind of device on a particular kind of gun. Or that the President didn’t mention “gun control” in a particular speech. What does matter is that we lose not one more child or one more teacher to another of these unspeakable acts.
