Mass shootings. Humility requires: both/and, not either/or
No man is an island. Mass shootings are an issue for every person and every community in the country, including the Jewish community. No one escapes the impact of the enveloping maladies, and not just on the practical level. Not just on questions of Jewish school security.
What is the answer to shootings? There is none. We appreciated the candor of the governor of Texas who, when asked, why the murder of 21 people in a Uvalde, Texas school happened, said the firearms used by the killer had been available for 60 years. Why were they used in this fashion now? “I don’t know,” Gov. Abbot said. In the matter of mass shootings, humility is more than a welcome ethical gesture. It is a guide forward.
Humility means: Better gun laws alone will not prevent mass shootings. This mainly Democratic, fallback, reflexive, intuitive — and single-focus — response is another instance of narrow political perspective. It will not resolve the problem.
Humility means: Additional funding for mental health services will not prevent mass shootings. This mainly Republican, fallback, reflexive, intuitive — and single-focus — response is another instance of narrow political perspective. It will not resolve the problem.
Humility means: A wider examination of mores and modes of contemporary society will help prevent mass shootings. But here, there is precious little Democratic or Republican thoughtful response. It’s either: Tougher guns laws. Or: “Guns don’t kill, people do.”
We were sore perplexed when, immediately after the shooting, Republicans suggested to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer a federal law establishing federal standards of school safety, and Schumer replied:
No! He would not bring the bill to a vote. Instead, he said, Republicans should vote for gun control.
Yes, Republicans should vote for better guns laws (see adjacent editorial). And yes, Schumer should promote federal standards of school safety.
Observe the talking-to-yourself reasoning of Sen. Schumer. He says he knows he doesn’t have the Republican votes in the US Senate to pass better guns laws. He knows it. Yet, his course of action is to tell Republicans they should vote for better gun laws. What will come of such an approach? Nothing.
Then there is the Republican embrace of, or fear of, the National Rifle Assn. The NRA holds its annual convention (in Texas, no less) a few days after Uvalde, with a lot of hand wringing but zero introspection. What will come of such an approach? Nothing.
We say: Humility. There is no single answer to mass shootings. But there are answers. There is an all hands on deck approach. There is: both/and. Yes to better gun laws (as we have urged repeatedly). And, yes to additional mental health services (as we have also urged repeatedly). And, yes to federal standards of safety for schools (and, yes to Democrats and Republicans working together on this). And, yes to a painful process of national introspection on the decline in our personal mores and on the social media obsession that leaves so many isolated. And, yes to anti-bullying efforts.
And, yes to the rejection of such one off responses as:
New York has tough gun laws. That didn’t stop the shooter in Buffalo. As if outlawing military grade weapons for 18-year olds is anything other than common sense, even if this and similar laws will not work every time.
The Second Amendments allows me. As if, when an 18-year-old walks out of a sporting goods store with military grade weapons and 375 rounds of ammunition, the seller has no responsibility to alert the police, no sense of citizenship, no sense of anything but a hundred justifications for why, following the law, he did not fail at a thing.
Red flag laws? Forget it. They’re so easy to get around. As if a sometimes flawed approach to guns and mental illness —whether the flaw is in a psychiatrist’s, a school principal’s or a police officer’s office — should be eliminated rather than improved. And as if it is only professionals who should report threats of violence seen, for example, on social media.
The police do nothing. As if, because the police acted reprehensibly in Uvalde, they did not act professionally in Boulder, Arvada, Parkland, Charleston, Pittsburgh, Sugarland, Sandy Hook and at so many other slaughter sites.
A polarized polity is a polity given to simplistic perceptions, simplistic solutions, politicized reactions, and blame games, all of which continue to dig the hole deeper and deeper.
Rabbi Israel Salanter said, “there is no illness worse than despair.” Our children have grown up knowing mass shootings, including school shootings. Our children have cowered in fright, cried out for action, and witnessed no change. They are on the brink of “acceptance.” Of despair by another name. We owe it to them “to do something.” But in our simplistic world, “to do something” has come to mean, “to find the solution.” Which has also come to mean: to reject an opponent’s solution. Which means: do nothing.
We need, not “to do something,” but “to do somethings.” Many things. Better guns laws. More money for mental health services. Federal laws for school safety. Even with all this, if we do not admit that we have lost a sense of mutual responsibility — that solutions are not only up to them — no law will help. Solutions are also up to us.
Both/and: We need a broad range of better laws, along with a nationwide willingness by all of us to say: In my small corner of the universe, if I could demonstrate more responsibility for people who are, technically speaking, not my responsibility, then Icould be a role model. I could, to take just one example, report threats of violence that I see. I could contribute a small bit to making a large difference.
Only with the accumulation of society-wide small bits of responsibility will there ever be a large difference.
All of us doing our little part, together with a broad range of better laws, will make the decisive difference.
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