Carnage

Sometimes, it seems like all the stories about the latest mass shooting on some college campus or some crowded street or in an elementary school are all the same.

They do blend, because - after all - there are just so many ways of writing about heroic deeds under pressure, little nuggets of bravery and courage amid the unimaginable carnage, and the inevitable wringing of hands and promises that it will never happen again.

Until it does.

But, after well over a dozen mass shootings in the United States so far this year - and its only  February - maybe it is time to take a look at the problems with our reporting of these events and the near-impossible job of actually doing anything to stop them.

Let’s go someplace you never expected. Let’s look at the myths under all the stories.

What? You didn’t realize there was a myth here? Well, there are lots of myths underneath the endlessly changing flow of details about any mass shooting. Myths so common that we no longer talk about them. Maybe the lone cowboy bringing justice to the wild, wild West, or the idea that there must have been something - some little thing - that could have been done to stop the clearly mad, clearly misguided shooter, or that, somehow, we are losing the battle of respect for human life to those nasty rap songs and the endless violence of video games.

Well, upon reflection, powerful and unwritten myths were a big part of almost every story that I wrote for the past half century or so. See, the environmentalists were right and global warming is wrecking havoc on our beaches. See, the conservatives were right and hundreds of thousands of dollars is being wasted in those anti-poverty training programs. See, no matter how much the (liberals, conservatives, fill in whatever you like) whine and cry about the deficit, our economy is humming along, we are getting pay raises and the future looks really bright.

Myths all. And they work, because - on some level - they are all true. 

Environmentalists are right, although you can’t really draw a straight line between a single event and a massive world-wide climate change. Money really is wasted in anti-poverty programs. All you can do is try a whole lot of things, and hope one or two of them work under the current conditions and with the people you are trying to reach. And the debt really is killing our economy, but not in ways that are immediately obvious.

So. let’s look at some of the myths that surround mass shootings. The ones that are so taken for granted by us and the media that we barely even see them.

I’ll start with the first big one. There are good guys and there are bad guys, and if we could only spot the bad guys we could keep them from killing innocent people. True and  not true. The true part is obvious. Less obvious is that fact that, until the demented shooter takes out their automatic weapon, they are still one of the good guys. You know, the good person with a gun who could stop a bad man with a gun.

Yep. If a shooter kills 18 people on a Tuesday, on the Monday before he or she was just a law-abiding citizen of a state that lets almost anyone buy all the weapons and all the ammo they can find in the store. Those not-yet killers are seen as just obeying the law, stocking up on legal weapons and ammo, and helping to keep the world safe by their faithful adherence to the Second Amendment. You know, just like us.

So, it’s not a question of catching the bad guy, but of figuring out just when one of the good guys turn to the dark side. Butting into their private lives. Taking away their legally-purchased guns. Perhaps, even, making them get a new permit to buy a gun or keep a gun, especially when they start turning mad or senile. Gasp. Gasp. Not a good thing to talk about in an election year.

Then there’s the myth of violence. You know, if we could tone down the music or ban the video games, our culture would be calmer. There is a minor theme here, too. A lot of shooters are loners or have been bullied, so if only we could stop bullying and make people more social, the gun violence would stop.

Well, let’s deflate a bubble. There wasn’t too much violence in the United Stales in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s, except by corporations against workers trying to form a union, or whites against blacks in the South, or - maybe - against the Japanese after Pearl Harbor was bombed.

Then World War II came along, and more violence was seen all over the world than anyone had ever imagined. Millions died. Our movie houses were full of war hero stories with lots of shooting and dying. And, we didn’t have much gun violence in the streets, probably because not too many civilians had automatic weapons except for the FBI and the mobs.

Well, the violence has grown steadily with Republicans and Democrats in the White House, with decade-long wars in Vietnam and Afghanistan and police actions and advisor actions all across the globe. Our entertainment on television is noble - SWAT teams and SEAL teams and investigators from any number of real or imagined agencies. All of them causing the death of some evil-doer at the end of the show, unless it’s a two-parter.

But, no, there has never been a proven causal link between violent video games or violent movies or violent music and real violence in the street. There is a link between bullying and violence, but it only seems to work one way - some shooters have said they were bullied when they were growing up. But, not many people who were bullied go on to become mass shooters.

There is a link to shooting and gun control, but it is so obvious that a lot of politicians don’t mention it. Guns are really very good at what they do, which is to kill people. The right ones will fire quickly - dozens or hundreds of bullets a minute, depending on just what you have purchased. And, it seems that when they are harder to get, there are fewer mass shootings to deal with. 

Now, lots of members of Congress want to have a “perfect” solution to gun violence - we can’t ban a bump stock because bump stocks were only used in a few shootings. We have to deal with mental illness before we go about violating the Constitution and ban the sale of guns, or just some guns, or of magazines that hold 12 or 20 rounds or more.

Imagine, if you will, that some bleeding-heart liberal would go to Congress and say “You can’t pay for the wall that President Trump wants to build, because it won’t stop every single illegal alien from crossing the border into the United States.” Not that it’s wrong, or too expensive, or wildly impossible to actually construct. No, just that it won’t stop every illegal crossing.

Or, pretend that someone is standing before a judge, convicted of running a Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousands of people out of millions of dollars. The judge asks if he has something to say before passing sentence.

“Yes, your honor. I know I stole a lot of money, but putting me in jail won’t stop everyone who tries to do the same thing in the future. I know I deserve some kind of punishment, but you can’t impose it until it solves the whole problem of fraud in investing,” he replies.  With a smile.

My last myth is prayer. Which will be unpopular to say, but is nonetheless true. Some of our elected officials seem to be using prayer as a safe way of not doing anything to solve the problem of gun violence.

It was comforting, very comforting, when another president, several years ago, prayed for the victims of a racist shooting. It is natural to want to comfort victims of any disaster, natural or caused by uncontrollable violence.

But, after 15 or 18 or 22 times, the words start to seem hollow, unless - of course - they are followed by actions. Automatic weapons get harder to buy, the power grid in Puerto Rico is rebuilt, the poor and their undernourished children get the schools the need to grow out of poverty and the food they need to grow up strong. And, maybe, their cousin still trapped in a hell-hole of sectarian violence in Afghanistan or southern Africa will be able to escape and come to the United States.

That would be the answer to a prayer. A real answer. A sincere one.