Lubys Cafeteria in Killeen Texas; October 16, 1991; a resturant.
Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado; April 20, 1999; a shooting at a high school by two students.
Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston South Carolina; June 17, 2015; a shooting at a church.
Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino California; December 4, 2015; a terrorist group inspired shooting of people one of the two worked with.
Walmart in El Paso Texas; August 3, 2019; a retail store.
Ned Peppers Bar in Dayton Ohio; August 4, 2019; a shooting that started at the entrance to a bar.
Mass shootings have taken place at restaurants, schools, churches, workplaces, retail stores, and bars. All that is separate from the people who have been shot, sometimes in groups, at home by a member of their own family.
It is enough to make a person wonder where they are safe.
One of the first things that come up and/or comes to mind is gun control. Are there things we can and should be doing in the area of gun control that we are not doing, most likely. At the same time, given for example the Second Amendment to The Constitution of the United States of America, there is a limit to what gun control can do. If we are honest the best gun control can do is reduce the body count. I will admit that if it is your child, sibling, parent, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandparent, friend, neighbor, or acquaintance who does not die because we reduced the body count, then reducing the body count is a wonderful thing. At the same time, in at least my opinion, it is not enough. This means that gun control is not enough.
Gun Control will not end mass shootings on its own.
Eliminating bullying in our schools will not end mass shootings on its own.
Eliminating bulling in our workplaces will not end mass shootings on its own.
Improvements in mental health care will not end mass shootings on their own.
Those we hire to protect us can not end mass shootings without our help.
Ending racism is in my opinion impossible and will not end mass shootings on its own.
Ending discrimination, again likely not possible, will not end mass shootings on its own.
Ending inappropriate comments, tweets, and communications by actors, leaders in government, and/or people in general will not end mass shootings on its own.
The list of things that contribute to the occurrence of mass shootings could go on for as long as we wish to make it and would still not include everything that belongs on the list.
There are countries with less mass shooting then the United States. This is true by simple count or if you calculate the number of mass shootings per 100,000 people in the country. At the same time we have to understand that what works for them, may not work for us.
We also must understand that there is no one thing that will make it all go away. All of the things on the practically never ending list of things that contribute to mass shootings need and deserve our attention. Unfortunately I am rather certain that we lack the ability to fix them all at once. One of the reasons for that is that what we do to one of them likely affects a number of the others on the list. Interconnections cause so many problems and offer so many solutions.
The fact that a mass shooting can happen anywhere, at any time, does not mean we should live in fear. We should always do our best to improve ourselves, our community, our city, our county, our state, our country, and our world. At the same time we must always remember that the work will never be done. We also must never allow the fact that the work will never be done to keep us from doing the work.
The world needs each and every one of us to help it become the safe place it can be.
Are you doing your part.
jeremiahgramkow@jeremiahgramkow.com