Gun Violence
On April 29, 2021 the Washington Post reported that the Broward County Superintendent of Schools would resign due to fallout from the February 2018 shooting at Majorie Stoneham Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The story states: “…a wide-ranging grand jury investigation has been tasked with probing ‘possible failures in following school-related safety laws and mismanaging funds solicited for school safety initiatives,’ according to Florida state officials.”
I have no special insight into whether or not Superintendent Runcie should have lost his job. (Full-disclosure: I taught public school for 32 years and there were any number of Superintendents who I hoped would lose their jobs.) But, I do know that dismissing a Superintendent for not doing enough to harden a school environment is another level of crazy in the American gun saga. Let’s be clear, the real problem is that the shooter had access to a gun, not that the school was inadequately prepared to fend off the shooter. Until we can look in the mirror and admit that, we are doomed to suffer over and over again on the unfathomed trail of shootings.
In our conversation about gun violence, there are enough twitchy premises and bald hypocrisies to fill unlimited cemeteries. Start with the Constitutional dodge, as in: The Second Amendment sticks us with the situation we have. Even if you accept the premise—jurists and constitutional scholars are not unanimous on the issue—so what? The Constitution wasn’t revealed on Sinai. It's an entirely mutable contract. The question is, given our current circumstances, what do we want our Constitution to say about gun rights. And, if that isn’t what it says, how should it be changed?
Then there is the mental health dodge, as in: Guns aren't the problem, this is a problem of people with mental health issues. If gun violence is really a mental health problem, then it’s time Congress lifted the ban on the NIH studying gun violence as a public health issue. You can’t have it both ways.
Until we accept that the underlying cause of gun violence is access to guns and gun culture, we will continue to fire Superintendents, and express regret about shootings, and mourn the loved ones we’ve lost because we didn’t do the things that needed to be done.