I cried on my way home from work yesterday...cried for almost the entire 52-minute drive home. I bawled on my way to work this morning. I cried today at school during my planning. I cried for complete strangers, for myself, for my coworkers, and for my students. I just cried.
I grew up in a house with a dad whose gun closet was bigger than his clothes closet. I learned never to touch his gun safe, I was taught from a young age how to shoot a gun (it's a rite of passage on Patterson Road), and I don't feel unsafe around those who concealed carry. I'm not anti-2nd Amendment, but I am pro-common sense. I'm not sure at what point these two things became mutually exclusive; I guess it was some time between the ratification of our Bill of Rights in 1791 and the NRA spending over $31 million in the 2016 presidential election1...
Don't tune out yet, this isn't going to be an anti-gun rant. I promise.
It seems there's a cycle in the U.S.:
I don't have the answers. Shocking, I know, that I'm admitting I don't know.
What I do know is this: I would take a bullet for any student in my classroom (even the ones I don't particularly enjoy).I know with 100% certainty that I'd step in the line of fire for each and every one of them, but I shouldn't have to; so it infuriates me every time someone who has never worked in a school building suddenly pretends to have all of the answers. In the last 24 hours I've seen too many social media friends with the "right" answer; answers ranging from training armed guards for every school building to arming teachers with guns to fight back against potential gunmen (because yes, why not arm a group of under-appreciated/underpaid/stress-prone teachers and expect awesome results?).
Just a few things:
I grew up in a house with a dad whose gun closet was bigger than his clothes closet. I learned never to touch his gun safe, I was taught from a young age how to shoot a gun (it's a rite of passage on Patterson Road), and I don't feel unsafe around those who concealed carry. I'm not anti-2nd Amendment, but I am pro-common sense. I'm not sure at what point these two things became mutually exclusive; I guess it was some time between the ratification of our Bill of Rights in 1791 and the NRA spending over $31 million in the 2016 presidential election1...
Don't tune out yet, this isn't going to be an anti-gun rant. I promise.
It seems there's a cycle in the U.S.:
- A mass shooting happens
- People send thoughts & prayers to the victims and their families
- Social media lights up with pro- and anti-gun reform debates
- Congress does nothing legislatively to make a difference
- Everyone forgets about it...until the next mass shooting
I don't have the answers. Shocking, I know, that I'm admitting I don't know.
What I do know is this: I would take a bullet for any student in my classroom (even the ones I don't particularly enjoy).I know with 100% certainty that I'd step in the line of fire for each and every one of them, but I shouldn't have to; so it infuriates me every time someone who has never worked in a school building suddenly pretends to have all of the answers. In the last 24 hours I've seen too many social media friends with the "right" answer; answers ranging from training armed guards for every school building to arming teachers with guns to fight back against potential gunmen (because yes, why not arm a group of under-appreciated/underpaid/stress-prone teachers and expect awesome results?).
Just a few things:
1) There are highly trained policemen with guns who shoot and kill people during high-stress, high-pressure situations every day8. Disclaimer: I'm not anti-police and I respect their sacrifices for general welfare and safety, it's just fact that stress affects responses regardless of training.
2) Federal and state governments won't allocate funds to supply public schools with basic school supplies, does anyone really think we can afford high-tech security systems and guns for every teacher in a building? My kids are using the same World History book I used ten years ago; but sure, give me a gun instead of textbooks5.
3) Some of the most high-tech security systems in the country are located in airports and people still manage to get weapons into terminals3.
Do you know what schools (and America) really need? Mental health professionals. Yes. I said mental health; because regardless of what we all can't agree on and what factors change in mass shootings, here's what stays the same that we can all agree on: no sane person walks into a public space and guns down other people. Now you might stop me here and say, "but the known shooter was kicked out of school, how would mental health professionals help?"
Another thing ALL shooters (not just at schools) have in common: they all went to school.
Do you know what schools (and America) really need? Mental health professionals. Yes. I said mental health; because regardless of what we all can't agree on and what factors change in mass shootings, here's what stays the same that we can all agree on: no sane person walks into a public space and guns down other people. Now you might stop me here and say, "but the known shooter was kicked out of school, how would mental health professionals help?"
Another thing ALL shooters (not just at schools) have in common: they all went to school.
If we as a country could A) recognize mental health as a crucial part of overall health, B) allocate money to pay for licensed mental health practitioners in schools (most schools currently can't afford more than 1 school psychiatrist per county or district), and C) institute interventions from Pre-K to 12th grade, imagine the change that could happen.
Imagine the kids with emotional/behavioral disorders who could be identified from an early age and treated by a licensed physician before they ever get their hands on an AR-15 and take it to a church, a music festival, or a school; imagine the kids who may never think about touching a gun or committing an atrocity, but feel more comfortable talking about things they're seeing and hearing because there is someone on campus trained to listen; imagine how the school environment as a whole would change, and how our communities would change in return.
Schools reflect our society at large. It isn't a coincidence that the frequency and death tolls of mass shootings are increasing at the same time our society is in the midst of a mental health epidemic. And yet, most states (and our federal government) continue to make it easier - not harder - for any individual to get their hands on a weapon. The Douglas shooter didn't obtain his AR-15 illegally. He was allowed to purchase it despite his behavioral record, despite his diagnosis with depression, and despite being a member of a White Supremacist paramilitary group. Could any or all of those factors been prevented with mental health services in school? Should any of those have been on a box he had to check before buying an assault rifle? Do we want mentally unstable individuals to be able to purchase deadly weapons?
I understand that current and potential gun owners don't want their lives to get more difficult when it comes to acquiring weapons. None of us want our lives to be more difficult, but sometimes we have to grit our teeth and deal with it for the sake of common good. We take our shoes off at the airport, we go (most of the time) the speed limit, we present our ID to visit loved ones in the hospital. We follow laws because they make sense (or they don't, but because they're law). We create laws to protect people. We've created legislative hoops to make it harder to acquire a myriad of things4: cough medicine, lawn darts that killed two children (yes, 2), health insurance, fireworks, birth control pills, pets (have you every filled out one of those shelter adoption forms!?), certain cheeses, alcohol on Sunday, hell, even Hamilton tickets are harder for me to get than a gun...
Yes, bad people don't follow laws and bad people do bad things; but if that is our argument against common sense gun legislation, then why do we have laws at all? If our only logic from even trying to prevent future massacres is that it doesn't matter what we do because there's always someone who will be an exception, what's the point of any of it? What's the point of school or government or laws or life if we so easily admit defeat against the worst of human nature?
I could've written an angry rant. I could talk about the difference between our Founding Fathers' intent for the 2nd amendment in 1789 compared to our use of that right today. I could post a response to Tomi Lahren's ill-informed, hypocritical, one-sided reaction and politicization of tragedy. I could go on and on about whose fault it is that these tragedies continue to happen and point fingers until they fall off... but it isn't about what we've done (or haven't done) to keep yesterday's students safe, it's what we do next to break the cycle and protect tomorrow's students.
Next time (because there will be a next time) this happens, demand a break in the cycle. Demand justice for the 2,647 children who die every year from gun violence6, for the 1,606 communities rocked by mass shootings just since Sandy Hook in 20127, for the 4+ families at each of those shootings who had to bury a loved one, for the 20,000+ people a year who commit suicide using a gun... all of whom could have been helped if we were open to discussing common sense solutions to a problem that has become uniquely American compared to other western nations. Next time, don't let crickets chirp in the wake of public anger after a catastrophe. Next time, don't let yourself forget.
If you're interested in knowing more about American mass shootings since 1966, check out this compilation of data to honor victims by name from Washington Post.
I understand that current and potential gun owners don't want their lives to get more difficult when it comes to acquiring weapons. None of us want our lives to be more difficult, but sometimes we have to grit our teeth and deal with it for the sake of common good. We take our shoes off at the airport, we go (most of the time) the speed limit, we present our ID to visit loved ones in the hospital. We follow laws because they make sense (or they don't, but because they're law). We create laws to protect people. We've created legislative hoops to make it harder to acquire a myriad of things4: cough medicine, lawn darts that killed two children (yes, 2), health insurance, fireworks, birth control pills, pets (have you every filled out one of those shelter adoption forms!?), certain cheeses, alcohol on Sunday, hell, even Hamilton tickets are harder for me to get than a gun...
Yes, bad people don't follow laws and bad people do bad things; but if that is our argument against common sense gun legislation, then why do we have laws at all? If our only logic from even trying to prevent future massacres is that it doesn't matter what we do because there's always someone who will be an exception, what's the point of any of it? What's the point of school or government or laws or life if we so easily admit defeat against the worst of human nature?
I could've written an angry rant. I could talk about the difference between our Founding Fathers' intent for the 2nd amendment in 1789 compared to our use of that right today. I could post a response to Tomi Lahren's ill-informed, hypocritical, one-sided reaction and politicization of tragedy. I could go on and on about whose fault it is that these tragedies continue to happen and point fingers until they fall off... but it isn't about what we've done (or haven't done) to keep yesterday's students safe, it's what we do next to break the cycle and protect tomorrow's students.
Next time (because there will be a next time) this happens, demand a break in the cycle. Demand justice for the 2,647 children who die every year from gun violence6, for the 1,606 communities rocked by mass shootings just since Sandy Hook in 20127, for the 4+ families at each of those shootings who had to bury a loved one, for the 20,000+ people a year who commit suicide using a gun... all of whom could have been helped if we were open to discussing common sense solutions to a problem that has become uniquely American compared to other western nations. Next time, don't let crickets chirp in the wake of public anger after a catastrophe. Next time, don't let yourself forget.
If you're interested in knowing more about American mass shootings since 1966, check out this compilation of data to honor victims by name from Washington Post.