There have been new details emerging about what actually happened and when in the timeline of the Texas school shooting earlier this week. While the original reports stressed the bravery of responding police units, new information, which includes video footage of parents screaming at police officers standing by at the school, have angered many and set forth new demands for a full accounting of what exactly happened in Uvalde on Tuesday.
At first, this seemed like a typical story surrounding a horrible mass shooting, this one in a school. Yes, you can argue that there is nothing “typical” about it, and I would be inclined to agree. One of the main problems in this country is that we seem to have normalized far too many things that really are not normal. Shootings like this might just be at the top of the list, for that matter, admittedly.
However, video has emerged showing family members yelling at police to storm the building and find a way to neutralize the shooter. Ever since Columbine, there has been an emphasis on rapid response in these kinds of situations.
As it turns out, however, in this particular case, the shooter was apparently in the school for an hour before he was killed by police. Most of the shooting happened early on, within the first few minutes. The gunman then barricaded himself inside of the classroom, where apparently he did most to all of his shooting from. He was eventually confronted and killed, but the fact that it took an hour does not sit right with many people, including most especially the parents of kids inside of the school.
Here’s the thing: many people talk tough. But the reality of being confronted by someone like this who likely understands only too well that he has nothing to lose, that he perhaps even wants to die, as many of these shooters do, has to be daunting. You might be having a perfectly normal day, and then just like that, you are facing a situation where you very likely are putting yourself in serious, grave danger. Yes, that is officially part of the job if you are in law enforcement. But how could it really hit you until you are faced with this kind of a thing in reality? Who could expect it?
And to me, this shows the reality. Nobody seems to think it can or will happen to them, until it actually happens. Nobody in Littleton, Colorado likely gave too much thought to gun violence before heading off to Columbine on the morning of the shooting over two decades ago. College students surely were not thinking about gun violence before they went off to their classes at Virginia Tech in 2007. Those precious little kids and their parents and loved ones surely did not have gun violence on their mind on the morning when they were taking their kids to school on the morning of the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, back in 2012. The parents and students who were getting ready for what they had assumed would be a normal day at the high school in Parkland, Florida surely had not been thinking about gun violence before their lives changed. And now, I am sure that every resident is Uvalde, Texas, are in stunned disbelief now that this kind of a horrific shooting has taken place there.
Look at the names and locations of these mass shootings (and these are just the biggest school shootings, the ones that really captured the public's attention when they happened). A suburb of Denver in Colorado. A university in Virginia. An elementary school relatively small town in Connecticut. A school in a suburb of Miami, Florida. And now, an elementary school about 85 miles from San Antonio, Texas, and less than 50 miles from the southern border with Mexico.
Remember, these were only the biggest school shootings, just from my own memory and without any real research. They do not include the ones that did not quite grab as many headlines for as long. It also does not include other major mass shootings that were not in schools. Nothing about the Long Island train shooting in the nineties. Or the Aurora theater shooting not far from Columbine in another suburb of Denver in 2012. Or the racially motivated church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, in 2015. Or the shooting at a night cub in Orlando, Florida, in 2016. Or the shooting at an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, Nevada, in 2017. Or weeks after the Las Vegas shooting, the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas. Or the synagogue shooting in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, late in 2018. Or the also very recent mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. Again, those are only the ones that also, for whatever the reason, grabbed the most headlines. And again, they are spread out across the country, quite literally.
My point here is that it can happen anywhere, and at anytime. You never know when or where it might happen next. There is no seeming safe place. You could be at a school, or at church or synagogue. You could be dancing at a night club, or doing some shopping at a mall or grocery story. You could be enjoying a concert, or watching a movie. There have been plenty of shootings at places of employment, even if none specifically came to mind for me while writing this. It could happen at a political rally in a parking lot. It could even happen on a military base, where you think that there really is more protection than usual.
The school in Uvalde itself had a thorough plan, all written out in official school documents, about what to do in the event of an active shooter event. Surely, local police officers also had some kind of contingency plans to respond to a mass shooting. But once the event actually happened, everything went very differently, because this was not a set of directions in black on white on an official document. This was real life, and hardly anybody is ever truly prepared for something like this, once it actually happens.
No one expects it to happen, and usually, it shows. That is why I simply do not believe in the frankly fairy tale notion that gun advocates seem to believe in, that more guns will solve the problem of gun violence in this country. Too many people watch movies, perhaps particularly Westerns starring Clint Eastwood or John Wayne, and assume that they are made of the same steel as these fictional characters, that they would stay cool and be the hero when push comes to shove. Real life is a little different. The police in Uvalde, much like the police at Columbine, were trained professionals. They showed understandable hesitancy when suddenly faced with a real life or death situation. I understand the criticisms of the police in Uvalde, but they acted in a very understandable, very human way. In theory, storming the building with SWAT teams and going through room by room until the threat has been destroyed or neutralized sounds very efficient and very proactive. But life does not always work like that. We have certainly been aware of the threat of mass shootings since at least the nineties. It still does not prevent these horrific mass shootings from taking place, though, and from taking many, many lives. Far too many lives.
So personally, I have never been a believer in the theory that the "only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Many of these shootings have happened in states with lax gun laws, and other than the shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, I cannot think of one example when a so-called "good guy with a gun" ended a mass shooting. You know what might actually stop a bad guy with a gun? Making it more difficult for that bad guy to have such easy access to guns in the first place, especially if there is a history of violence or mental instability. Gun enthusiasts say that there is no proof, and sometimes warn that this would lead to a totalitarian dictatorship. Yet, strong gun restriction legislation swept through in other countries that had horrific mass shootings, such as in Australia, Canada, Great Britain, and New Zealand. Sometimes, it happened within just days of the mass shooting (and I stress that it did not take many, many, many mass shootings for them to take action). And you know what? It worked. Gun violence went significantly down in those countries, and others. And none of them turned into totalitarian dictatorships, unless you believe that Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and Great Britain are indeed dictatorial nightmares.
Somehow, though, that option is never taken seriously in this country. Poll after poll shows that a majority of Americans favor common sense gun legislation, some reasonable limitations to access to guns. And every time, it is blocked by politicians in the pay of gun lobbyists. I hate to sound pessimistic, but my assumption is that any meaningful changes will be blocked by such slick politicians in Washington this time around, as well. I mean, did anyone else see the clip of Ted Cruz being confronted by members of the British press after Uvalde? He had no real answers, and was too cowardly to show any kind of serious reflection or desire to solve the problem. Instead, he just talked about how great and, ironically, how safe the United States is. The same old, tired arguments about how exceptional we Americans are, and turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to actually solving very real problems that exist here. is this is the type of leadership we are now reduced to in this country?
It literally disgusts me. I wish that I could feel enthusiastic that things will change sometimes soon. But after seeing these kinds of stories suddenly come into focus with screaming headlines time and time again, and seeing any serious and meaningful solutions get drowned out by special interests in the Washington gun lobby, and politicians in their pay, I personally have lost faith. It does not feel like this is enough for grown up Americans to actually explore this issue and/or demand real change. What will it take? Hundreds of victims? Thousands? Perhaps some nut case with a lot of money suddenly using a weapon of mass destruction with weapons that he obtained because of a ridiculous interpretation of the second amendment?
Personally, I do not know what it will take. And I hate to think about what actually might make things change, because it is literally and figuratively unthinkable.
Meanwhile, as the news keeps showing, parents who were planning summer vacations for their kids in Uvalde (summer vacation was just a couple of days away) are now instead making funeral arrangements. For now, the school shooting is still very much in the headlines, and so is the gun debate. That, however, will change, and too soon. This shooting might have been particularly shocking for many. But will it actually change anything in today's United States of America?
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