There Was No Outrage

There was no outrage.  No candlelight vigils were reported.  There was no Presidential visit to comfort the community.  I hadn't yet received any emails from Gabby Giffords or Mark Kelly.  After all, the body count was only one dead, two wounded.  It was just one more school shooting.  I had only half read the article before folding the newspaper and tossing it into the recycle bin.  Two days later I woke up earlier than usual.  For some reason, this school shooting incident was on my mind.  I showered, ate breakfast and looked at today’s paper.  The headline, “Boy charged in teacher’s killing,” caught my eye.  A 14-year old boy had been charged with killing his 24-year old math teacher with a box cutter.  The article also mentioned the school shooting in Nevada:

On Monday, a 12-year old opened fire at a school in Nevada, killing a math teacher and wounding two students before killing himself.

I walked over to the recycle bin and looked for Tuesday’s paper.  It was the first one I pulled out of the pile.  There it was on page A-5.  The headline read, “Nev. school shooting leaves teacher dead.”  The article described what had happened:

According to police and witnesses, a student at the school – wearing khakis, part of the Sparks Middle School uniform – opened fire shortly after 7 a.m., leaving Mr. Landsberry [the 8^th grade math teacher] dead and two students wounded.  The shooter, who has not been identified, apparently then took his own life, police said. 

The story made no mention of the type of gun used.  Was it a handgun, a hunting rifle, a semi-automatic assault rifle?  How did the student get the gun?  Did it belong to his parents?  What was his motive?  Were there mental health issues?  Was he the object of bullying, or was he just having a bad day?  Perhaps some of these details will be provided in the coming days.

The shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut took place over 10 months ago.  According to the Slate.com website, nearly 10,000 people have died from gun violence since the Newtown tragedy.  

After the Sandy Hook incident, President Obama called for Congress to enact legislation that included universal background checks for all firearm sales, reinstatement and strengthening of the ban on assault weapons, limiting ammunition magazines to 10 rounds and banning the possession of armor-piercing ammunition by anyone other than the police or military.  The Obama Administration’s proposals were universally denounced by the NRA and by those politicians in its pocket.  For a short time it appeared that expanded background checks had a slim chance of passage in the U.S. Senate, receiving bipartisan support from co-sponsors, Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Joe Manchin (D-WV).  However, even that limited restriction couldn't meet the Senate’s 60-vote hurdle.  It was killed by the gun lobby; it only received 54 votes which somehow isn't enough these days.  After that defeat, the politicians in Washington seemed to lose their stomach for a fight over any kind of restrictions, particularly after seeing how the gun lobby went after state politicians that supported tighter gun restrictions in Colorado in the aftermath of the tragedies of Aurora and Newtown, not to mention Columbine.

So who really cares about the shootings in Nevada?  There were only two dead if you count the shooter, and only two wounded.  The dead man, Michael Landsberry, tried to stop the attack.  That’s what he gets for interfering with the shooter’s right to bear arms. 

Or could this latest school tragedy just be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back? 

Naah!  Not a f#@%ing chance!