This past week I have been turning over and over in my mind the events that took place at Annunciation Parish in Minnesota. As best as I can understand, an emotionally disturbed person legally purchased three firearms and then shot into the school Mass, killing two children. It of course is clear to me that any of the wounded, any of the dead, could have been Aine. Everyone involved with this awful incident will be forever scarred by what had happened. And, sadly, another school’s name will be added to the long list of schools where this has occurred.
That our nation is still stuck here--this place in which the mentally ill or emotionally disturbed are capable of purchasing weapons is beyond wrong. It is hard to understand why we regulate the auto industry more than the firearm industry. It points out to me that here, too, something is rotten.
We also live in this world of hyper-celebrity. That it is crucial to be famous, to be noticed. It is as if some collective narcissism has taken root.
Already, the news of the shooting has faded from the press. The current state of the nation means that each day has to have some new headline to encourage a sense of angst or rage. It is a symptom of such narcissism. It is a clue as well. That we are not all outraged when someone decides to end it all with a mass shooting to garner fleeting recognition points to the underlying societal illness.
Our children will continue to go to school under these conditions, that never changes. Hard decisions usually mean unpopular ones. In the case of the crossroads of emotional disturbance and mass shootings, there are only hard, unpopular decisions that will result in the decrease of such violence. They are only as complicated as the time it would take to assess the effect of such decisions. I applaud the limiting of social media for young people that some states have enacted. A fully loaded phone is about as dangerous as a fully loaded gun these days. Perhaps using useful, but extremely deadly automobiles should be the standard by which such useful, but also deadly items are measured. We purposely restrict, test, insure, legislate and judicially mandate a proper way of using a car. We prosecute people for stealing, driving while intoxicated, reckless driving and many other minor infractions. Too many and one loses their license, their right. It is not surprising that not everyone is allowed to drive let alone own a car. We don’t allow emotionally disturbed people behind the wheel because we test them. And we also insure to at least bring culpability into account when something goes wrong. That seems like such a simple place to start.
But it probably won’t until we end the plague of hyper-celebrity narcissism. You see, we all love too much our fully loaded phones, fully loaded cars, fully loaded pizzas and fully loaded guns to adhere to what we perceive as fully loaded lives. Limiting any of it? Why that wouldn't be fully loaded then. We wouldn't feel satisfied. We would cease to be the center of it all.
And, this morning, my daughter walked in a long line of schoolkids, heading toward the first Mass of the year. I told her I loved her and as I drove away, I held my fear, my anger and my breath.
READ MARTIN’S OTHER BLOG HERE.