Clarice Feldman of the American Thinker offers perspective about the latest high-profile school shooting.
Every mass school shooting strikes terror in parents’ hearts and grief in the communities in which they occur. You might from press coverage have the idea that they are a regular occurrence, but, in fact, they remain rare — 13 mass school shootings since 1966.
Still, like all seemingly incomprehensible tragedies it causes a search for meaning. …
… What is common, as it is in all tragic events, is the jumbling of facts and the need to wait a few days for a clearer picture. …
… Mass shootings — unlike the never-ending daily carnage on the streets of our major cities — receive outsize coverage from people who have their pet theories as to why such tragedies occur. I think we are dealing with a combination of the killers’ psychiatric issues and clueless behavior by their family members. The family usually expresses disbelief that one of their members could do this. Less blinkered observers report that Ramos abused animals, bullied people, engaged in self cutting, threatened girls with rape, and announced on social media that he’d be shooting up the school before he made good on that threat. …
… Without fail, such events encourage those who’d like to wipe the Second Amendment off the books and deprive lawful citizens from the means to defend themselves. Does the fact that the cops stood outside the school for an hour during the slaughter give you comfort? …
… Professor Ann Althouse also finds that the police response diminishes the anti-gun crowd’s arguments: “If the police don’t arrive and save us from violence, how can this event support the argument for restricting guns? This is the very situation that makes the most responsible people want to own guns. It reminds me of the summer of 2020, when there were riots, and the police stood down.”