On the morning of Thursday October 1st, Chris Harper-Mercer picked up five pistols and one rifle from his collection of 14 firearms and headed to Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon. For whatever reason Harper-Mercer had, he went to the school that he himself was enrolled in and opened fire, murdering nine victims ranging in age from 18 to 67 years before ultimately committing suicide. The innocent victims were:
Lucero Alcaraz, 19
Treven Taylor Anspach, 20
Rebecka Ann Carnes, 18
Quinn Glen Cooper, 18
Kim Saltmarsh Dietz, 59
Lucas Eibel, 18
Jason Dale Johnson, 34
Lawrence Levin, 67 and
Sarena Dawn Moore, 44.
It was reported that the shooter asked some students if they were Christians and then said something along the lines of “well lucky you, you’ll meet God today.” It was reported that he spared one “lucky” student, giving him an envelope with a message for the police. It was reported that the shooter’s father has sympathy for the dead and wounded, but has no idea why his son would do this. It can safely be said that the media have become experts at reporting these types of events.
Amidst the sadness and despair caused by the loss of innocent lives, the families being reminded of Sandy Hook, the families being reminded of Columbine, the families being reminded of Virginia Tech, the families being reminded of Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, and all the other shootings that stain our proud flag red, one can loudly hear the voice of the true American patriot saying “Protect Our 2nd Amendment Rights. Blame the Shooter, Not the Guns.”
Blaming the shooter has gotten us nowhere. Blaming the shooter has put us in the same situation that it did after Virginia Tech and Columbine and Sandy Hook and all the numerous school shootings that have happened on American soil: mourning the loss of innocent lives but waiting for the next tragedy to strike.
We are WAITING for the next tragedy. We are WAITING for the next school shooting, for the next church shooting, for the next theatre shooting, for the next act of domestic TERRORISM (oh no, did I use a trigger word there?).
I am tired of blaming the shooter. I am tired of watching politicians have inconclusive, roundabout debates on how to prevent the next shooting from happening while preparing the sympathetic words to say when that next shooting does in fact happen.
And that good ol’ 2nd Amendment that people keep so near and dear to their red, white and blue hearts just isn’t working for me. Yes, I have issues with the 2nd Amendment but no, I do not want to stop anyone from having a gun if they desire to own one. Honestly, if anyone even touched the 2nd Amendment (not that that is plausible with the roundabout, status quo favoring setup of the federal government laid in place by the Constitution) things would get worse. Even the “making guns harder to purchase” solution plays out in my mind as backfiring very, very badly. This can obviously be seen through the times of Prohibition; just because something is harder to get, does NOT mean that people won’t find avenues to get what they want.
So, what do we do? What is the solution? How do we end this madness? How do we prevent the next Umpqua shooting?
I think the solution is that we have to dig deeper and look for other causes of this seemingly multifaceted problem. Gun loving, elephant party, immigrant refugee Mexican hating America (more trigger words, sorry not sorry) does not want to give up the guns. So I am going to need one smart politician out there to look at the problem from a different lens. Could it be a mental health issue? Maybe. Can anyone out there think of any other causes? Hopefully. Will a superhero politician come along and fix the problem? Probably not.
But I will try to have hope.
Because I do not want to sit in front of my television, tears welling up in my eyes, as they name the innocent victims of the next mass shooting.
