Msgr. Paul V. Garrity
Jen Psaki is an MSNBC personality who was criticized by an another talking head for saying that prayer was not enough in the wake of the recent Minneapolis school shooting. Emblematic of our polarized nation, this represents a new frontier when even prayer becomes an arrow in the quiver of those who want to foment division.
The deaths of Fletcher Merkel, Harper Moyski and the wounding of 18 others at Annunciation School last week adds Minneapolis to the long list of school shootings that have become almost commonplace in the United States today. Columbine, Sandy Hook, Newtown, Uvalde and Parkland are just a few of the places that have experienced the horror of what just took place in Minnesota.
For a few days, following each mass shooting, there is wall to wall media coverage. Within a few days more, these names become footnotes and fading memories. For the victims, however, their lives have been forever changed. What does not change is the absence of a national strategy to combat school shootings and gun violence.
In the wake of Minneapolis, mental illness is, for some, the reason this took place. For others, the proliferation of guns is the culprit. Scapegoating local mental health resources is a convenient way to avoid talking about guns. Reminding everyone that there are almost two times as many guns as there are people in our country is also a way of ignoring the mental illness of deranged shooters. Adding the transgender identity of the Minneapolis shooter is also a red herring that adds more clouds to an already cloudy sky.
Historically, school shootings quickly become political issues with a high degree of intransigence on both sides. This leads to paralysis. This is certainly why the United States leads the rest of the world by a large margin in the number of school shootings and overall gun violence. Validating statistics are readily available, regardless of the standards or methodologies used. The bottom line is that the United States has an epidemic of gun violence that is continuing to metastasize before our very eyes.
As long as this cancer is diagnosed in political terms, there will never be a cure. As long as opposing forces see political gain in asserting their positions, school shootings will continue. It is only a question of time until the next one takes place. Shakespeare was right: the past is prologue. Philosopher George Santayana said it a different way: those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Rising above political differences is a gargantuan challenge in our polarized climate. This cannot take place as long as the problem is diagnosed in divergent ways. What we are faced with is the absence of a correct diagnosis. What we are really faced with is a moral imperative. It is immoral that our nation is allowing gun violence to proliferate. It is immoral that political differences are preventing a strategic cure for this national ailment. It is immoral that the public good is being ignored and that children are being forced to bear the brunt of this with their own lives.
The Minneapolis shooter was angry, violent, full of hate and explosive. When people like this can purchase not one but three firearms, mental illness and our gun culture come together. We are not faced with an “either/or” problem. It is a “both and” problem. In an age of AI, when astronauts live in outer space and hearts can be transplanted, it is bafflingly simple to understand that if there is a will to stem future gun violence, then there must be a way. School shootings and gun violence continue unabated because the will to do something is simply not there.
“See something, say something” may sound clever but not awfully effective. Mentally ill and violent people, however, do not grow lie mushrooms overnight. Interventions before tragedy strikes are probably already taking place in many quarters. More interventions are obviously needed. In an age when algorithms abound, there has to be a way of balancing the common good, privacy, personal freedom and free speech. Not to accept this challenge is to condemn ourselves to random violence that will continue to bring injury and death to innocent people, many of whom will be our beautiful children.
At the level of public policy, it is beyond clear that much more needs to be done to overcome the paralysis that has allowed gun violence to proliferate. This is a moral imperative before it is a political issue. Correctly defining the clear and present danger before us is the first step in creating the bi-partisan consensus that can make a difference.
Msgr. Garrity is a Senior Priest of the Archdiocese of Boston and former Pastor of St. Mary’s Parish and School.
