Once again, a school shooting has shocked us all. In Winder, GA, a 14-year-old killed two students and two teachers and wounded nine others. Last Wednesday’s incident was just another one in a long series of mass shootings at U.S. schools. It may not have been a bloodbath like Virginia Tech, Uvalde or Sandy Hook, but it was still a heartbreaker – and a reminder of not just how lax our gun laws are but also how deeply ingrained into our society the gun cult is.
How many more of these tragedies must take place? How many more shootings, how many more deaths, how many more funerals, how many more tears, how many more flowers and candles left as memorials? All of those who died had plans for their lives. All of the students had futures that will never be realized. One of them could have eventually headed a research team that would find a cure for muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gehrig’s Disease, or some other currently incurable malady. One of them could have helped develop a vaccine against HIV. One of them could have written the Great American Novel, or composed music that would stand the test of time. One of them could have won a Nobel Prize, or a Pulitzer, or a Hugo, or an Oscar.
Our marshmallow-livered, jelly-spined, chicken-hearted elected leaders could do something. They could do a lot. They should have done something substantial after Columbine, or Luby’s, or the Edmond Post Office, or any other mass shooting. But instead they cravenly kowtow to the gun lobby. The jingle-jingle of the NRA’s blood money rings loudly enough in their ears to drown out the wails of the wounded and the bereaved, and the angry demands of gun control advocates. Funny that Congresspeople fiercely defend the Second Amendment, while violating many of the others.
It is easy to forget that the US Constitution was originally written when most rifles were muzzle-loading muskets, which required a complex procedure to reload; breech-loading firearms were new, and could fire only one shot at a time. The Founding Fathers could never have foreseen modern bullets and guns – science fiction wasn’t a thing back then. Also, gun nuts howl about the “right to keep and bear arms” while entirely forgetting the opening phrase in the Second Amendment: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State…” OK, what part of “well regulated militia” don’t y’all understand? Goof bags running around with AR-15s and Confederate flags are not well-regulated militias, just well-armed goof bags.
One thing I would like to know is how gun-defenders will feel when their own children become the victims of a school mass shooting. Will they still have JD Vance’s attitude that such massacres are a “fact of life,” or will they start to sing a different tune? People with children attending Columbine, Robb Elementary, West Nickel Mines School, Virginia Tech, Red Lake Senior High, Douglas High School or Apalachee High never thought it would happen to them.
You may have read the fable of the oak and the willow. The oak stood strong against every storm, and mocked the willow for bending. However, eventually a really powerful storm came along and blew the oak down. The willow survived because it was flexible. Someday we will get that storm that is powerful enough, overwhelming enough, to knock over the NRA’s oak. Someday.
