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What To Do With Mass Shootings?

tiroteos masivos - mass shootings - el american

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A deranged shooter claimed 22 lives at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, the 3rd mass shooting in a matter of weeks in the United States. Nineteen of the deceased were children and more than a dozen were wounded.

Condemnation was swift across the political spectrum. And the politicization of the mass shooting did not wait either. Democrats called for greater gun control almost immediately, including the president and vice president. Couldn’t they wait for the families to mourn their children?

Republicans, for their part, came out in quick defense of the Second Amendment.

It does not seem to be a sign of a healthy polity that the first response to the vicious murder of 19 children and an elementary school teacher is to defend one’s political positions. Any response other than to mourn along with the families does not seem appropriate.

But certainly, the question must be asked: what to do? And few seem willing to have an honest conversation about the issue. Democrats want to impose greater restrictions on guns, but they ignore that the two previous shootings occurred in states with restrictive gun laws and that, in many instances, mass shooters do not acquire their guns legally. They may be well-intentioned, but it doesn’t seem to be the solution.

And neither is giving guns to teachers or blaming it all on a mental health crisis in the country, as some Republicans have said, the answer. 

There are no clear solutions to this situation when political squabbles continue to be put ahead of the common good and, at the very least, having an honest conversation about the issue. For now, there is nothing left to do but mourn and hug our children.

Edgar is political scientist and philosopher. He defends the Catholic intellectual tradition. Edgar writes about religion, ideology, culture, US politics, abortion, and the Supreme Court. Twitter: @edgarjbb_ // Edgar es politólogo y filósofo. Defiende la tradición intelectual católica. Edgar escribe sobre religión, ideología, cultura, política doméstica, aborto y la Corte Suprema. Twitter: @edgarjbb_

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