This week, the nation was once again shocked by the everyday, as a gunman killed nine at a community college in Oregon. It’s the uniquely American gun paradox: how something so horrifying can be so routine. As a somber — bordering on disgusted — President Obama noted: “we’ve become numb to this.” In truth, this actually isn’t everyday violence - it’s more than everyday. In the 274 days of 2015, we’ve had 294 mass shootings. And 986 since Sandy Hook in 2012. The question is, when will our level of disgust be high enough that we do what’s needed to lower the body count? “If you think this is a problem,” said the president, “then you should expect your elected officials to reflect your views.” Until that happens, he said, we all bear a share of the blame: “We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.” Will we rise to the challenge?
There comes a point in life (individually as well as collectively) when a decision must be made, one that determines the path that will be taken and what the future will look like. It’s a matter of determining what’s truly important and then deciding how best to protect and nurture those things. So it is that we as a country find ourselves at such a crossroads.
The question revolves around the things we value, the things which we as a society choose to define as most important and which define us, both as a collective and as a moral society. Last week’s massacre at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, OR, provides us with yet another chance to answer this question…and to finally get it right.
The unanswered question, of course, is “Will we finally get it right?” Or will we continue to offer our thoughts and prayers to the victims and their love ones…and then get on with our lives as if nothing has changed? We have an opportunity to stand up to the furiously vocal minority of Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © and state with conviction and clarity that no, we will no longer stand idly by while yet more innocent blood is shed and those who values guns over human life carry the day.
Here’s a thought: If we simply choose to look at mass shootings differently, perhaps it will spur us to demand change for our elected representatives. If we define massacres like UCC as terrorism, would we look at matters differently? Would it cause us to realize that something must be done? Or do we continue to resist using the “T” word when a shooter is White?
We need- nay, we MUST change how we think about, define, and react to a mass shooting. If it takes calling them what they are- acts of terror- we should be doing it. Perhaps then we’ll begin to demand our laws be changed in ways that will help to reduce the likelihood that a mass shooting will occur.
If we can’t see our way clear to demanding change, we have no right to expect that anything will change…and we’ll have only ourselves to blame.
