Lessons Already Learned
Stupid is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result
{I was halfway through an essay on the “outing” of Americans who work undercover for our intelligence services. You’ll see that one eventually; but then this happened}
It happened: another seventeen year old white boy with guns; ten more kids and teachers dead, thirteen wounded. It happened again. And until we, as a Nation, do something different, we can only offer our “…heartfelt thoughts and prayers;” weak words with little meaning.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re ready to repeal the Second Amendment, or a card carrying NRA member, it is incumbent on all of us to DO SOMETHING! There are areas we can all agree on, I think, without crossing the lines that drive us into paralysis. So lets do those things, even though we know that one side or the other may be giving away “bargaining chips” in some later great debate about the weapons themselves. If those bargaining chips can save some lives – then give ‘em up. Let’s get to work.
For example, there really isn’t an argument about background checks. Only the most radical “black helicopter” folks are against a government-run system of determining whether someone is a criminal, or mentally ill, or under some other impediment that should prevent them from having a gun.
A full program might have stopped the Parkland shooter. His record should have stopped him from having weapons anyway, but part of the problem is that there are no national standards, and no demonstration of national will for keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them. And in the Parkland case, there was no responsible parent to intervene.
And like it or not, this has to be a national program, it can’t be state by state. We learned that from the Tennessee Waffle House shooter, who was prohibited from having guns in Illinois and moved to Tennessee. And we learned another thing from that shooting: that when someone is the responsible party who owns weapons, they have to exercise that responsibility. In the Tennessee case, the shooter’s father was given the weapons by the authorities; he gave them back to his son.
So Friday, in Santa Fe Texas outside of Houston, a boy took his Dad’s shotgun and pistol; made some fake explosives, and went to school. He shot his way through a glass door and continued shooting classmates and teachers. If we had responded to Tennessee, we might have made the father more responsible, and, maybe, prevented his son from getting the weapons.
No one expects their child to be a shooter. No one expects their fourteen year old to steal the car and go for a joy ride. But both of those things happen. It’s up to the responsible adults to prevent both: lock the car and keep the keys, and lock the weapons away.
We know from Columbine that schools must find ways to “know” their students. It isn’t just happenstance, it has to be a concerted effort by school administrators to reach all kids. It’s not about calling kids down to the guidance office and asking them if they might be “school shooters,” it’s about establishing ongoing relationships between kids and significant adults; teachers, administrators, counselors, custodians, coaches. Kids themselves know when their friends are troubled, they need to trust to reach out to an adult. And it’s about establishing a “protocol” that recognizes when a kid is becoming disaffected, and how the school can intervene without making the situation worse.
And there are school security measures that might work. While I don’t agree with the Texas Congressman: “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” school resource officers (police) are useful. They not only represent a response to an ongoing shooting incident, but play an important role in mediating between two very different worlds, schools and law enforcement. And while we can’t and shouldn’t make schools look like airports with security checkpoints and scanners, we can take some reasonable actions to improve school security.
Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick showed his ignorance of schools, fire codes, and student behavior when he said “…there are too many entrances and too many exits…” and suggested there should be one way in and out. But they are ways to restrict and control access to schools that can reduce or help contain the risks of a possible shooter.
All of these things: improved background checks with mental health additions, additional controls on the responsibility of gun ownership (or custody), emphasis by schools on developing relationships with all students, school resource officers, improved school security; they all cost money. They are all issues with some disagreements. But they are all areas where there is a great deal of agreement, and the “land mines” of the Second Amendment and the structure and function of weapons are not involved.
Let’s start the process. Let’s get going on fixing what’s broke. Let’s use the lessons we’ve already learned.
