Washington DC Shootings

So the big news this past week was the mass shooting at the ship yards in Washington, less than four miles away from the White House.

Once again, rather predictably, the argument has flared up again about gun control laws.

Once again, rather predictably, the argument against any further gun control laws has yielded to paranoia and hysteria about how the government is going to be coming for your guns. Never mind that this simply is not true.

I was witness to one such reaction, the day after the shooting. The news was on at my job, and a woman doctor who had made an impassioned plea for America to fix it's gun problem was being interviewed. This guy is a big gun advocate, to the point that I have seen him watching Youtube videos on specific guns, and how to use them, presumably. He seems to know an awful lot about specific guns. In other words, again, he is a gun enthusiast.

Anyway, we were watching this woman doctor being interviewed, and she was talking about America's gun violence, and how we needed to rein this in. I don't remember her specifically saying anything about legislation for gun control, even. But she had just treated someone for gun shot wounds the day before, as a result of that random shooting, and she had made an inadvertent emotional appeal that had received some attention.

This guy next to me was literally laughing, and saying, "Yeah, right!" as she was talking about her experiences, still rather fresh, with gun violence.

I was shocked, and did not know how to react. It was a surprise to me that someone could literally take such a blasé attitude, gun advocate or not, about this particular issue, not even one year removed from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings. To literally be laughing at someone describing their experience concerning a still very recent mass shooting (it had been less than 24 hours since the shooting had broken out) told me one thing: this guy was part of the problem.


It just sometimes amazes me, how far removed from these kinds of things people can be. It is that sense of immunity, which is a uniquely American specialty these days. Even when things are unique to the United States specifically, such as the sheer frequency of such mass shooting incidents, still Americans think that, generally speaking, they are exempt from something like this.

Granted, it is not likely. That much I understand. Not likely, however, does not mean impossible. Those people who dressed fro work at the Navy Yards that morning certainly could not have expected to be victims of a mass shooting like that. Yet, they were. So, to feel that immune to it? And to have such an apparent level of indifference to the suffering of others, as well as to what is becoming a glaringly obvious problem wit the United States, more than anywhere else? It made me a bit sick to my stomach.

Whether people want to admit it or not, or remain willfully blind to it, we do have a serious problem in this country regarding guns. And the indifference that my coworker displayed is, unfortunately, not all that uncommon.

I mean, think of all of those random mass shootings that suddenly make headlines for a while. There are news reporters with live feeds from the site, and if the shooting makes a big enough splash, it will cause the gun debate to explode onto the national scene. Granted, tighter gun control measures repeatedly are defeated. That was the case after Columbine. It was the case after the Giffords shooting. It was the case after Aurora. It was the case after Sandy Hook, most recently. And it will be the case after this shooting in Washington. It's guaranteed.

What's also guaranteed, unfortunately? More such mass shootings. Who knows where it will be? It could literally be just about anywhere. After all, if it occurred on a military base with tight controls, it can surely happen anywhere.

For most people, these shootings are restricted to our television and computer screens, and perhaps the newspaper headlines and stories. Depending on how many victims, the length of time that the story will dominate the news will vary. When it is a very high number, and/or has some particularly strong shock value, it will indeed dominate the news for quite some time. This was the case with Columbine, and it was the case with Sandy Hook. It was the case in the shooting involving Giffords, because of her high profile. To a lesser extent, it was the case with Aurora, and is the case now with the Ship Yards. People are fascinated, and it dominates the news.

But it will go away from the mainstream attention, as some new story begins to take up more of the spotlight. Before long, it will be relegated to being a backburner story, fair or not. And serious discussion on how to truly avoid these kinds of incidents in the future will take a backseat along with it. It's guaranteed.

Why is it so hard for so many Americans to sympathize with the victims, and with the families of victims. In other countries, incidents such as these are taken very seriously, and swift and decisive legislative action is more often than not taken.

Here in the United States? It is relegated to a backburner, and many tighten their grip on guns. Many, in fact, make a point of buying more guns when such shootings occur, so convinced are they that guns are about to be illegalized.

But what is merely a news story for most, is a life changing event for those who witness these things firsthand. They no longer have the privilege of seeing these kinds of incidents from afar, having witnessed and lived through it (assuming that they do survive it).

Is it really that hard to imagine that something like this could actually happen to you? It happens rather frequently, and I think, by now, that most states have seen some kind of mass shooting on some level or another by now. Some, like Colorado, have seen more than one major shooting incident. Some, perhaps, have yet to see something like this yet. But chances are that you are fairly close to an area that has seen such a tragedy.

I live in New Jersey, maybe about an hour and a half, tops, in good driving conditions, from Sandy Hook. I have driven within minutes of the town where that shooting took place, on numerous occasions, over the years. And on the day that it took place, I remember just wanting my son to get home, and to spend some time with him.

Fact of the matter is that these are scary things, and they should awaken something in us. I don't know why so many Americans seem almost criminally negligent and oblivious to it. Why is it so hard to imagine, when it is starting to come closer to being an everyday reality?

Shootings have now occurred in many different kinds of places and circumstances. In post offices. In schools. In public parks. At a public event. In office buildings. In a movie theater. In the Navy Yards.

And to me, it is all too easy to imagine something like this unfolding.

Imagine seeing someone open the emergency doors, while you sitting and trying to watch an highly anticipated movie. It is loud on the screen, and there are explosions, which actually added to the confusion. Someone came in through that emergency door, and threw a smoke grenade, and then started shooting. It blended with the movie's special effects, but then people around you started screaming and ducking down. Some of them were obviously hit by bullets. Some are running out of the theater, making their escape.

It all seems surreal, but it actually happened. Now, imagine that you are one of the lucky ones who did not actually get shot, let alone killed. Imagine your reaction, and how long it must take to come back to some sort of normality.

Imagine the sleepless nights, particularly that first night. The sleeplessness, the restlessness continues for a few nights afterwards. Possibly weeks later, even. Imagine your reaction that first time that you drive by the theater again. Or when you see the theater on television, because it has not made the national news. Or perhaps, more subtle things that we tend not to think about, and which certainly don't make it to the nightly news. Imagine the first time you see a poster or a commercial for that movie, or the first time you go back to a theater. the smell of popcorn, which maybe used to have positive connotations, but now probably reminds you of that fateful night. Some of the people that were there in Aurora that night, as well as some of the family members of victims, never want to set foot in a theater again. Can you blame them?

Or, take a school shooting. Imagine that day, going back home, seeing all of those police cars and other emergency vehicles, not to mention the news vans. Imagine seeing the ribbons all around town, and seeing that town dominate the headlines. Imagine that first night, when you perhaps want the comfort of the presence of an adult. Imagine that first day back in school, in a classroom, when your last experience was of an emergency evacuation, or perhaps your class locked the doors and hid.

Imagine how what kind of an impact that may have for the rest of your life, if you saw some kid going nuts, and shooting people that you know. Imagine seeing them fall to the ground, perhaps seeing parts of their bodies explode. Not a pretty picture, but neither is this subject matter, and we keep having to talk about it, again and again and again, don't we? Imagine living through that and, on some level, constantly reliving it through small reminders that, again, a forgetful news audience could hardly imagine.

Then again, it is not only children that suffer from school shootings. Imagine the staff, and their reaction when they realize that something really is going on. That first time that you hear the popping sound, as it is so often described, of the gun. Realizing that you have to protect your kids, that this is not an exercise. That your own life, as well as others, are in danger. Imagine their reaction, being interviewed by the police, comforting their kids, rejoicing when they return home to their families, and also the sleepless nights. Imagine them first returning to the school before the kids have returned, and seeing the empty classroom, the empty hallways, devoid of kids, and remembering.

Imagine the police getting that initial call to respond to an emergency, some mass shooting somewhere, and realizing that this is no drill. This is the real thing, and you might be putting your own life in jeopardy.

Imagine the ambulance, feeling overwhelmed with the amount of victims in immediate need of care. Seeing the gunshot wounds, Losing one of the victims, and still trying to stay brave. Facing the press at the end of it all, and trying to keep your composure before the unforgiving, unblinking cameras.

Imagine those who had to clean the mess afterwards - literally picking up and wiping off pieces of brain, perhaps other body parts. And, of course, blood - lots of blood.

Think of their reaction, and how their lives will change forever. No one thinks it will happen to them, much less ask for it. But it happens. It happens right now in the United States, far more than any other countries. There is a problem, whether or not we admit to it.

And I think now of my coworker's skeptical reaction - actually laughing, and I cannot help but think that I encountered a small, and highly personalized, part of the problem. Perhaps you know someone like that, too, in your own life. Someone who laughed and expressed only cynicism while someone was describing their experiences during such a tragedy, because they are afraid that this time, perhaps Obama will really come for their guns. It is an irrational fear, and has not been backed up by facts. But that these tragedies keep occurring, here in the United States more than anywhere else is not some whispered fear. Unfortunately, that is backed up by facts, in the harsh daylight of reality. And it won't change until the response of people like my coworker begins to change.

This shooting is still making news, but already, it is fading a bit into the background. At least, that is, for those among us who had the privilege of watching it in small doses on the nightly news, far removed from the reality of what happened. It never popped out of the screen for people like my coworker, and so it never came alive. The impact was highly muted, as it is for most Americans. And that means that little to nothing will change, in terms of the American consciousness.

But to those people who lived it, endured it? It undeniably changed their lives, even if it was hardly a blip on the national news radar screen. Unfortunately, we will likely have to see more such incidents on the news before some people, like my coworker, can even begin to acknowledge the seriousness of the problem that is, simply put, unique to this country in terms of both scale and repetition.

And that, perhaps, is the biggest tragedy of all - the tragedy of indifference.


"What if the Media Didn’t Turn Spree-Killers Into Morbid Superstars?" September 17, 2013 by Joshua Holland

http://billmoyers.com/2013/09/17/what-if-the-media-didnt-turn-spree-killers-into-morbid-superstars/