When it comes to preventing school shootings, there is an automatic association connecting “action” with “gun laws.” A false dichotomy is presented: We either restrict guns, or we do nothing. So, when the Minneapolis mayor spoke in response to the Annunciation shooting, he focused on guns as the culprit. So have many other metropolitan mayors, the Governor and those rallying at the State Capitol yesterday.
The ineffectiveness of this singular advocacy—as far as school safety is concerned—was revealed in a vision I had of this recent perpetrator. Did you watch his video previewing his violence? If you did observe the unrestrained derangement and homicidal nature, you realized this person was going to create a nightmare however possible. If it wasn't his military-style rifle and clips upon which he wrote his slurs and calls for violence—targeting everyone from Indians to Blacks to Trump—he would have homed in on his shotgun and pistol.
"We're not talking about your father's hunting rifle here," stated the mayor in his speech, referring to firearms that would remain legal under the proposed ban.
Okay. I pictured the perpetrator entering the church with his 12-gauge shotgun, commonly used in bird hunting. Immediately recognizing the devastation, the gun issue was suddenly pretty much irrelevant compared to the obvious main factor in this case: the violently insane person who did this. It also suddenly seemed crazy to me to overlook this.
But that’s what this automatic association has done. It’s hardened the resolve to take action that misses the mark of actually keeping children safer. I understand the temptation to target guns in the wake of these cases; how in a civilized society it seems out of place for people to have military style weapons. But I'm not sure a single life would have been any less affected in that church if current advocates would have had their way. This was about an individual completely psychologically lost and apparently lost to those who might have been able to help.
It feels like gun restriction advocates are hesitant to focus on this aspect because they see it as ceding ground to pro-gun people making this claim. While prioritizing these political battles, the root causes—as well as practical solutions such as an armed security guard—are overlooked. This killer needed serious immediate help. In a jurisdiction with political leaders ignoring this, we’re no closer to preventing the next one.
The big truth is that we're entering an era of general societal entropy (breakdown) of institutions, communities, and individuals. The specifics of the weapons used by such a broken person—or the fact he identified as trans, as many conservatives like to point out—both miss this bigger picture.
While a national phenomenon, our state and metro area have especially suffered this breakdown (and even exacerbated it), as seen with the episodes of social unrest the past 5-10 years as well as the response to COVID. Right below today’s Star Tribune top story about banning guns is a feature about how an alarmingly high rate Black boys are being lured into violence by gangs. One was recruited at a Boys and Girls Club. Another committed the 2022 shooting into a crowd in the heart of Uptown, killing a man.
Whether it's a community or an individual coming apart, the youth of Minneapolis/St. Paul are no less at risk with people more concerned about the weapons used than the societal breakdown motivating individuals and groups to act violently. As such, it’s up to individuals (persons, families, communities, and institutions) to take it upon themselves to stay safe.
