Pat Taub
In a recent dream I was attending a civic meeting. I grew frustrated with the speakers who addressed safe topics, like improving city parks. I wanted them to take on the latest school shooting, which took place in Nashville, killing three 9-year-old children and three adults. Unable to hold back my frustration, I bolted from my chair, rushed to the stage, and passionately blurted out, “Not One More!”
In my dream I was pleading that we act now so that not one more innocent child or teen is gunned down.
Nashville students protesting for gun control in the State Capital, 3/30/23
To put our school shootings in perspective: gun violence is the leading cause of death for American children.
In 2022, there were 51 school shootings that resulted in death or injury. 140 children were killed or injured. So far in 2023 there have been 13 school shootings, or almost one a week.
Even when kids are not harmed in a shooting, the experience can traumatize them for life, as depicted in the HBO film The Fallout: a story about two teenage girls who hide in a toilet stall to escape a shooter. They survive but are so shaken they can’t return to school. When they finally seem to be healing, one of the girls turns on her phone to read about a new school shooting and is re-traumatized.
But what about little kids, like the young children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas who survived last May’s shooting that killed nineteen of their classmates? I can only imagine the nightmares and anxiety they experienced and continue to experience.
Mural of the 19 young children killed in the Uvalde school shooting, May 24, 2022
But it’s not just kids who survive a school shooting who are impacted. School shootings affect all of our children and teens, who march off to school facing the very real possibility that they could be the next victims.
While we feel sadness and outrage over every shooting, we tend to move on. It becomes yesterday’s news until another shooting and the cycle repeats itself.
The veteran journalist Thom Hartmann has suggested America needs an Emmett Till moment to probe them into action. Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally murdered in 1955 by two white men. His mother insisted on an open casket so the nation could see her son’s mutilated face. His shocking photo was reproduced in newspapers across the country.
Mamie Till weeping at her son’s funeral, Chicago, 1955 (Jet Magazine)
Death by an assault weapon literally tears a body apart. The Uvalde children who were murdered could only be identified by their DNA. Given the entrenched opposition to gun control, it seems unlikely that horrific images of children’s torn-apart bodies will turn the tide. Gun control advocates are up against gun rights lobbyists who have managed to influence their representatives to the extent that gun restrictions are being lifted rather than imposed.
In Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Nebraska, Texas and Virginia, Republicans have pushed to limit gun-free zones, remove background checks, and roll back laws to remove firearms from those who present a danger to themselves or others.
Last week Florida approved a bill allowing the carrying of concealed weapons in most places without a permit. Gov. DeSantis is expected to sign it.
A demonstrator displays a picture of the victims of the Covenant school shooting on their phone inside the Tennessee state capitol during a protest against gun violence (The Guardian)
In 25 states, no permits are required to carry a handgun—nine more than in 2020!
Parents, teens, and gun control advocates have spent decades signing petitions and appealing to their Senators and Representatives to no avail. Congress is too gridlocked to take meaningful action on gun control. The pro-gun elected bullies want to arm teachers, turning our schools into military compounds. Or they drag out the tired argument upholding Second Amendment rights, code for supporting the NRA, who gave $16 million to Congressional campaigns last year. A more pathetic response is offering “thoughts and prayers.”
Since traditional channels haven’t worked, it’s time to take to the streets. Mass mobilizations are standard tactics in Western Europe, where they often get results. Finally this tactic is coming home with Nashville students calling for a national walkout.
Not one more child or teen should be murdered in our schools.
