Columbine.
We'd had shootings before. We'd had mass shootings before. We'd had school shootings before. But this was a turning point in our nation's sad long history of gun violence.
With Columbine, there came this awareness of the immediacy of the act. Our news coverage - in 1999 with 24/7 cable news, today with livestreaming social media - could make a school shooting in any part of the country a sudden kick to the collective gut. It's the kind of violence that can't be ignored, aimed at our families and our communities.
Columbine became a focal point for others on the edge, driven to seek their vengeance against anything and everything. The second a school shooting happens, the earliest question tends to be "was it someone inspired by the Columbine shooters?" and sadly it's common enough for the answer to be "Yes." The Parkland shooter researched Columbine before he went on his own rampage.
And Columbine became one of those turning points where America couldn't come to terms with our violent gun culture. Despite efforts in the 1990s to restrict firearms and limit access to military-level weaponry, we had by 1999 a gun show loophole that the shooters exploited - underage gun purchases were/are otherwise banned - and which is still in existence.
Confronted with a growing problem of easier access of firearms to the wrong people, we've had the NRA and their political allies refuse time and again to allow greater gun safety laws, to limit the kind of damage a mass shooting like Columbine can inflict. Thanks to their inaction/interference, we've had far too many mass shootings since April 1999. Sandy Hook. Virginia Tech. Parkland. And too many to count.
Parkland happened just last year. Close to the anniversary of Columbine. There's been a lot of media attention about the synchronicity between the two tragedies, and the survivors of one are reaching out and connecting with the others as a kind of bookend.
Except it's not the end of it. We're still dealing with a nation where the political leadership won't listen to or connect to the vast majority of people who are begging for an end to out-of-control gun violence.
Columbine wasn't a beginning, more of a warning alarm. Parkland isn't the end, more of a reminder that our schools are targets.
It's been twenty years of one tragedy. Right now, I dread the fate of whichever poor school in twenty years has to share its pain with Parkland survivors.
Goddamn us.
1 comment:
As the wheels of dealing affirmatively with gun violence always manage to grind to halt shortly after the shock of yet another school or mass shooting wears off I find it of note that politicians here in Ohio are quick to mandate emergency lock down practice and propose the arming of teachers.
Cart before horse. Ah-h-h that sweet NRA/Russian money.
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