Yesterday, a familiar tragedy struck a familiar place, as a disturbed 18-year-old kid brutally and senselessly gunned down 19 elementary students, 2 teachers, and his own grandmother in Uvalde, Texas. It’s the exact same story as Sandy Hook nearly 10 years later: similar perpetrator, similar weapon, both attacked a family member before massacring a similar elementary class of victims, neither survived to face justice for the incalculable harm they inflicted. Since I grew up after Columbine, Sandy Hook was the mass shooting that burned into my brain the gruesome, twisted, heartbreaking reality of gun violence in this country. This was just as bad as what happened in Sandy Hook, plus a diabolical deja vu that another town is broken, more families ripped apart. Adding insult to injury, the debate around guns has become even more toxic since Sandy Hook, making any chance at addressing the underlying causes (even the mental health ones) seem increasingly out of reach. Texas’s elected leaders put on performative press conferences to express condolences, but Gov. Abbott and Sen. Cruz will turn around and deliver keynote speeches at the NRA convention in Houston this Friday. The whole situation just feels hopeless, tragic, and empty to me – I can’t imagine what the parents of these elementary children (or any American children, for that matter) are going through right now.
What can actually be done to stop tragedies like this before they occur? Well, the easy first step is sitting in a file cabinet outside the Senate – passing H.R.8 (known as the Bipartisan Background Checks Act) would establish more stringent oversight on firearm transfers, closing the gun show loophole and fortifying the moderately successful Brady Bill to a more universal background check. There might be a move at the presidential level, like President Obama’s flurry of departmental actions strengthening mental healthcare and state enforcement. Heck, declare war on gun violence or public terrorism and the president might have a free 90 days to try something, anything to address even a part of this issue. However, it feels more unlikely that any meaningful change can happen now than in the aftermath of Sandy Hook; we seem to have since resigned to the notion that this problem cannot be solved in this political climate. I find it overly cynical to believe that no policy initiatives will work here – Australia and New Zealand have many cultural and historical similarities to the United States, but each country responded swiftly to their mass shootings with gun control initiatives (automatic weapons buybacks, more extensive background checks, permitting, etc.) that appear to have almost completely eradicated the problem. Even if in America, to avoid being too optimistic, a policy only prevents a fraction of all school shootings, we can save the lives of hundreds of children while assuring millions of others that we are at least trying to keep them safe. To me, that is far more defensible than doing nothing.
Unfortunately, we are on track to do nothing. Even though 554 people, mostly children, have been victims of school shootings since Columbine. Not including the number killed in mass shootings at churches and stores and nightclubs and concerts. Or other gun violence incidences that don’t meet the minimum of four victims to be considered a mass shooting. Or close calls that can leave bystanders with long-lasting PTSD. “Thoughts and prayers” are woefully insufficient, and if you think that they are enough, I encourage you to think and pray about the schools listed below, one by one. Each of these is a community that was devastated by gun violence, and the list will only get longer unless we start taking serious action:
Thurston High School.
Columbine High School.
Heritage High School.
Deming Middle School.
Fort Gibson Middle School.
Buell Elementary School.
Lake Worth Middle School.
University of Arkansas.
Junipero Serra High School.
Santana High School.
Bishop Neumann High School.
Pacific Lutheran University.
Granite Hills High School.
Lew Wallace High School.
Martin Luther King, Jr. High School.
Appalachian School of Law.
Washington High School.
Conception Abbey.
Benjamin Tasker Middle School.
University of Arizona.
Lincoln High School.
John McDonogh High School.
Red Lion Area Junior High School.
Case Western Reserve University.
Rocori High School.
Ballou High School.
Randallstown High School.
Bowen High School.
Red Lake Senior High School.
Harlan Community Academy High School.
Campbell County High School.
Milwee Middle School.
Roseburg High School.
Pine Middle School.
Essex Elementary School.
Duquesne University.
Platte Canyon High School.
Weston High School.
West Nickel Mines School.
Joplin Memorial Middle School.
Henry Foss High School.
Compton Centennial High School.
Virginia Tech.
Success Tech Academy.
Miami Carol City Senior High School.
Hamilton High School.
Louisiana Technical College.
Mitchell High School.
E.O. Green Junior High School.
Northern Illinois University.
Lakota Middle School.
Knoxville Central High School.
Willoughby South High School.
Henry Ford High School.
University of Central Arkansas.
Dillard High School.
Dunbar High School.
Hampton University.
Harvard College.
Larose-Cut Off Middle School.
International Studies Academy.
Skyline College.
Discovery Middle School.
University of Alabama.
DeKalb School.
Deer Creek Middle School.
Ohio State University.
Mumford High School.
University of Texas.
Kelly Elementary School.
Marinette High School.
Aurora Central High School.
Millard South High School.
Martinsville West Middle School.
Worthing High School.
Millard South High School.
Highlands Intermediate School.
Cape Fear High School.
Chardon High School.
Episcopal School of Jacksonville.
Oikos University.
Hamilton High School.
Perry Hall School.
Normal Community High School.
University of South Alabama.
Banner Academy South.
University of Southern California.
Sandy Hook Elementary School.
Apostolic Revival Center Christian School.
Taft Union High School.
Osborn High School.
Stevens Institute of Business and Arts.
Hazard Community and Technical College.
Chicago State University.
Lone Star College-North.
Cesar Chavez High School.
Price Middle School.
University of Central Florida.
New River Community College.
Grambling State University.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ossie Ware Mitchell Middle School.
Ronald E. McNair Discovery Academy.
North Panola High School.
Carver High School.
Agape Christian Academy.
Sparks Middle School.
North Carolina A&T State University.
Stephenson High School.
Brashear High School.
West Orange High School.
Arapahoe High School.
Edison High School.
Liberty Technology Magnet High School.
Hillhouse High School.
Berrendo Middle School.
Purdue University.
South Carolina State University.
Los Angeles Valley College.
Charles F. Brush High School.
University of Southern California.
Georgia Regents University.
Academy of Knowledge Preschool.
Benjamin Banneker High School.
D. H. Conley High School.
East English Village Preparatory Academy.
Paine College.
Georgia Gwinnett College.
John F. Kennedy High School.
Seattle Pacific University.
Reynolds High School.
Indiana State University.
Albemarle High School.
Fern Creek Traditional High School.
Langston Hughes High School.
Marysville Pilchuck High School.
Florida State University.
Miami Carol City High School.
Rogers State University.
Rosemary Anderson High School.
Wisconsin Lutheran High School.
Frederick High School.
Tenaya Middle School.
Bethune-Cookman University.
Pershing Elementary School.
Wayne Community College.
J.B. Martin Middle School.
Southwestern Classical Academy.
Savannah State University.
Harrisburg High School.
Umpqua Community College.
Northern Arizona University.
Texas Southern University.
Tennessee State University.
Winston-Salem State University.
Mojave High School.
Lawrence Central High School.
Franklin High School.
Muskegon Heights High School.
Independence High School.
Madison High School.
Antigo High School.
University of California-Los Angeles.
Jeremiah Burke High School.
Alpine High School.
Townville Elementary School.
Vigor High School.
Linden McKinley STEM Academy.
June Jordan High School for Equity.
Union Middle School.
Mueller Park Junior High School.
West Liberty-Salem High School.
University of Washington.
King City High School.
North Park Elementary School.
North Lake College.
Freeman High School.
Mattoon High School.
Rancho Tehama Elementary School.
Aztec High School.
Wake Forest University.
Italy High School.
NET Charter High School.
Marshall County High School.
Sal Castro Middle School.
Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School
Great Mills High School
Central Michigan University
Huffman High School
Frederick Douglass High School
Forest High School
Highland High School
Dixon High School
Santa Fe High School
Noblesville West Middle School
University of North Carolina Charlotte
STEM School Highlands Ranch
Edgewood High School
Palm Beach Central High School
Providence Career & Technical Academy
Fairley High School (school bus)
Canyon Springs High School
Dennis Intermediate School
Florida International University
Central Elementary School
Cascade Middle School
Davidson High School
Prairie View A & M University
Altascocita High School
Central Academy of Excellence
Cleveland High School
Robert E. Lee High School
Cheyenne South High School
Grambling State University
Blountsville Elementary School
Holmes County, Mississippi (school bus)
Prescott High School
College of the Mainland
Wynbrooke Elementary School
UNC Charlotte
Riverview Florida (school bus)
Second Chance High School
Carman-Ainsworth High School
Williwaw Elementary School
Monroe Clark Middle School
Central Catholic High School
Jeanette High School
Eastern Hills High School
DeAnza High School
Ridgway High School
Reginald F. Lewis High School
Saugus High School
Pleasantville High School
Waukesha South High School
Oshkosh High School
Catholic Academy of New Haven
Bellaire High School
North Crowley High School
McAuliffe Elementary School
South Oak Cliff High School
Texas A&M University-Commerce
Sonora High School
Western Illinois University
Oxford High School
Robb Elementary School
Worldly Observations 