America: Land of the Knee-Jerk Reactions and One-Size-Fits-All Solutions

Another horrible, senseless school shooting. 19 innocent children dead along with 2 adults; the 18-year-old shooter dead and his grandmother seriously injured after he began his rampage by shooting her in the face. The shooter seems to be an all-too-familiar type; a bullied loner with few or no friends who legally purchased two AR-type assault rifles along with over 300 rounds of ammunition shortly before the shooting. We've seen this detail before too: the shooter posted his intentions on social media prior to carrying out the shooting.

While we may have become accustomed to these types of tragedies, most of us are still left feeling like we were sucker-punched in the gut. And we have to deal with all those emotions yet again. Shock, horror, profound sadness, anger, fear, futility, frustration, helplessness. I've experienced all of those over and over again. It keeps on happening and we all keep arguing about how we're going to stop these tragedies from happening. Unfortunately, I think the reality is we're never going to stop them from happening. If we're lucky, we can bring down the number, severity, and frequency of these horrific events, but I can't see anything, short of a miracle, being able to stop mass shootings from happening. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't try. There are things we can do that may help, but arguing isn't one of those things. Blaming each other isn't one of those things either. And focusing on just one of possibly dozens of contributing factors that enable mass shooting to occur so frequently in this country will never get us anywhere meaningful. 

How do we fix this then? How do we fix any problem? I believe some form of the classic Scientific Method is in play when folks are effectively trying to solve a problem.  It's a method consisting of systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses. Notice there's no blaming, shaming, political rhetoric, thoughts and prayers, or inflated opinions involved here. Yep, we're just dealing in plain old boring facts (yawn).

I think we have the systematic observation down pat. We've all 'observed' way too many of these tragedies and, thanks to our 24-hour, ratings-based news cycle we probably know more than we ever should about these tragedies. I think we've got a handle on the measurement step too. You don't need a tape measure or abacus to tell you these events are on the rise in both frequency and severity. I actually overhead a gal at work the other day say, "it's not that there are more shootings, it's just that the news is reporting them more than when I was a kid." Um, that is definitely NOT the case and it took me all of 30-seconds' worth of online research to disprove her assertion. But that's not the first time I've heard that or something very similar. And it usually -not always, but usually- comes from gun owners. And that's a nice segue to talk about the battle raging around the Second Amendment for as long as I can remember.

On one side you have gun owners and Second Amendment proponents who deflect and defend any attempts to curtail or regulate gun ownership. On the other side, you have those who blame current gun regulations for all the tragic mass shootings. So much, time, energy, emotion, and money has been expended by both sides without much of anything substantive getting accomplished. We certainly haven't cut the number of mass shootings, have we? The next steps in the scientific method are experimentation, formulation, and testing which, in turn, leads to modification of the hypothesis. But we can't proceed with these next steps because we're all too hung up and focused on guns and gun rights and gun regulations. Here's a thought for you: Guns are only one small piece of the puzzle. But we always seem to be searching for one thing or person to blame; because then we can proclaim the solution is simple -you only have to fix/change/eliminate this one thing or person in order to solve the problem. C'mon, people. Life is never that easy.

In fact, let's pause the discussion on guns for a second. Instead, imagine you're trying to lose weight. You decide you eat too much (the one thing that's the problem!) so you're just gonna stop eating for a few weeks. Most sane people would flatly tell you you're crazy. Others may try to suggest that you just modify your food intake. Count your calories, avoid carbs, drink lots of water, go vegan! Others may suggest exercise is the magic solution. You decide you like the idea of eating on a daily basis so you decide that you'll just exercise intensely for at least 4 hours a day, every day. Again, you'll have a lot of people calling you crazy and suggesting you focus on cardio or strength training or resistance training or yoga or swimming. So just focusing on eating and exercising, you can already see there are dozens of possible scenarios you could follow in order to lose weight. And that's just focusing on diet and exercise. A lot of people argue that getting the right amount of sleep is important when trying to lose weight. Maybe you have a medical condition that is contributing to your weight and, without addressing that, diet and exercise won't help you get where you want to be. The bottom line is there is no single, easy solution that can be implemented across the board for all people that will guarantee safe and effective weight loss. It's going to have to involve a combination of things and that combination may have to be tweaked and modified as time goes on. Still, we look for (and continually fall for) those infomercials touting the latest diet plan, diet pill, or piece of exercise equipment that will magically transform you into a fit and lean human being. I guess it's just human nature. We all like the path of least resistance; the easy way out. 

Next example: COVID. Lines were drawn early on; maskers vs. anti-maskers, vaxxers vs. anti-vaxxers. Meanwhile, the real answer to mitigating the COVID risk required a combination of masks, vaccines, and a couple other things. But no one who had already dug their trench and planted their flag was interested in a combination approach. Nope. That was just a guise to trick them!

Ladies and gentlemen, it's the same damned thing with mass shootings in the United States. Up until recently, the focus was solely on gun control. When I hear the term "gun control" I think about stricter regulations when it comes to buying and owning firearms. I think a robust and nationwide system of background checks for people wanting to buy a firearm is a great idea; maybe try to tie in mental health assessments or alerts. Definitely a centralized, real-time, nationwide database that can be searched when weapons dealers are doing criminal background checks. Right now we just have a patchwork system that varies state by state. It needs to be centralized and properly populated, utilized, and administered. Unfortunately, when an NRA member or gun enthusiast hears the term "gun control" it usually means only one thing to them; THE GOVERNMENT IS COMING TO TAKE AWAY MY GUNS AND COMPLETELY RESCIND MY SECOND AMENDMENT RIGHTS! And that's always where the discussion on gun control stalls, withers, and dies until the next mass shooting stokes the argument again.

At least now the aspect of mental health services has entered the national discussion. Unfortunately, gun control and mental health services are not often discussed together. Gun rights folks say guns aren't the problem, the lack of mental health services is the problem. Hey, what if it's both? Because, well, it is. It's those two things and much, much more. And it's not an easy fix. It's not an overnight fix. And it's not a universal fix. Humans have been killing fellow humans from the very beginning. That will continue even if guns were somehow miraculously removed from the equation. How about certifying and arming teachers with guns to defend against school shooters? So far studies have shown this is probably not a good idea and the majority of teachers aren't in favor of it. But, sure! Let's explore that. What about tougher gun legislation and maybe limiting or banning assault-style weapons? Sure! Let's explore that. What about enhanced mental health services available to everyone? Sure! Let's explore that. Everyone has got to open their mind to ALL the possibilities and be willing to try different things and combinations of things. Try anything other than the arguing and blaming and deflecting that's been going on far too long now. To all of you who want to see private citizens banned from owning firearms: WAKE UP, YOU'RE DREAMING. IT'S NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.  And even if it did, it's too late! The barn doors have been open and all the horses are long gone. If you ban gun ownership now, do you think everyone is just going to rush to their nearest police station and hand in all their firearms? Do think criminals will do that?  To all of you gun-toting citizens who are worried about the government taking away your Second Amendment rights: WAKE UP, YOU'RE DREAMING TOO. That ain't ever going to happen in the gold old USA. But, for God's sake, be open to allowing tighter regulations so we can at least see if that has any positive effect on the situation when it's combined with enhanced mental health services, increased school security, and increased awareness and willingness of all of us to look out for each other and to explore all our options and combinations of options. No blaming, no deflecting, no political posturing. That's what it's going to take to address this epidemic of mass shootings in the United States. There is simply no way in hell we will ever be able to eliminate guns from our society. They can't ever be outlawed. Both sides of the gun control issue have to realize that and believe it. That would be a huge step forward. Once folks stop fearing that the government is going to swoop in and take away their guns, they then have to put politics aside and try really hard to develop some empathy and plain old common sense to look at all possible mitigations and be willing to give each one a try. Only then will real progress be made. Until that time, I fully expect more knee-jerk reactions (and overreactions) every time a mass shooting occurs.

Further reading: https://www.npr.org/2022/05/26/1101571302/what-schools-can-do-to-prevent-school-shootings