by Pa Rock
Former Student and Teacher
Labor Day has come and gone, the big yellow buses are rolling, and most of America's elementary and secondary school students are back in school. Books have been distributed, seats assigned, lockers located, assemblies held, practices and games scheduled, contraband confiscated, detentions assigned, and, of course, loners are already being singled out and ridiculed by their classmates.
And school shootings have resumed.
Yesterday morning, just two days after Labor Day, a fourteen-year-old boy armed with a semi-automatic, AR-15-style, assault rifle walked down the hall of his high school in Winder, Georgia, and opened fire. He killed two of his fellow students and two teachers. Nine others at the high school were hospitalized as a result of the shooting.
Summer vacation had officially come to an end.
The boy had been identified as a troubled individual and potential school shooter in May of 2023 as a result of some of his internet activity, and the FBI sent a referral to the sheriff's department in a neighboring county where the boy and his family were residing. The child was interviewed by deputies who deemed him not to be a risk. The father apparently assured law enforcement that the only weapons he owned were hunting rifles and they were secured. It will be interesting to learn where the AR-15-style assault rifle came from and how the boy accessed it.
School is back in session, and four individuals who walked into Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, yesterday morning were in body bags when they left the building.
Law enforcement has said that the fourteen year-old suspect is being charged with murder and will be "handled" as an adult.
America's political class rushed to the microphones to decry the shooting, to offer thoughts and prayers, and to say that now was the time to grieve for the victims and we could worry about policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings sometime in the future. The can was kicked on down the road, just as it always is.
Donald Trump said the boy who killed four at the Georgia high school yesterday as a "sick and deranged monster."
Joe Biden put a bit more thought and care into his response. President Biden said, in part,
"Students across the country are learning how to duck and cover instead of how to read and write. We cannot continue to accept this as normal."
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre added to President Biden's statement with some recommendations for policies to address the issues of gun violence and school shootings: She said:
"This is not normal. Congress needs to take long overdue actions including:
- Bans on assault weapons and high capacity magazines;
- Establishing requirements for the safe storage of firearms;
- Investing in violence-prevention programs; and,
- passing a national red-flag law.
(This tired old typist would add "Universal background checks of all gun-purchasers, regardless of how or from whom they purchase their firearms" to Ms. Jean-Pierre's list.)
And this from Vice President Kamala Harris:
"It's outrageous that every day in this country, in the United States of America, parents have to send their children to school worried about whether or not their child will come home alive. . . It is a false choice to say you're either in favor of the Second Amendment or you want to take everyone's gun away. I'm in favor of the Second Amendment, and I know we need reasonable gun safety laws."
Lax supervision of guns seems to be a community norm in at least parts of Georgia, one that is backed up by the state legislature. The state is ranked 46th in the nation in gun control measures. In 2017 the Georgia State Legislature passed a law allowing guns on college and university campuses. In 2022 the state legislature passed "permitless carry" legislation, and Georgia law does not require private gun sellers to do background checks.
First question, Georgia - and America: Where and how did a child get access to an assault rifle?
Second question: Who's school will be next?
This is not normal!
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