I woke up this morning to “Breaking News!” Normal programming interrupted while we watched First Responders mobilize in response to yet another school shooting.
The images have become too familiar. News helicopters in the sky overhead hovering like buzzards surveying the carnage below. Paramedics racing to and from the scene of another active shooter incident rushing High School kids to treatment and safety. Kids, whose most pressing concern was what to wear when they woke up this morning. Kids —their families and communities — who will never be the same!
I’m past the questions that seem to bubble to the surface every time something like this happens. Who was the shooter? What prompted him to react the way he did? Were there any telltale danger signs?
I’ve moved on. I want to know where and how he got his hands on a .45 ACP semi-automatic handgun. How and where a 15-year-old acquired the ammunition?
On the first anniversary of the Borderline Massacre and every other mass shooting that preceded this morning’s nightmare, why are we still wondering how this kind of thing can happen? Why are we still talking about the same things that were keeping us up at night after Columbine, twenty years ago?
How and when did we become impotent: able to identify the problem, but unable to do anything about it?
Is it a lack of will?
The majority of people want stronger background checks. Why hasn’t the Senate responded? And, why have we permitted them to ignore us?
I’m tired of watching people die, parents grieve, and children bear the scars of our failure to demand action.
What’s it going to take? How long will we have to wait before we can put an end to this insanity?
active shooterhelplessimpotentineptschool shooting