The Boston Globe - 05.08.2019

A6 The Nation The Boston Globe MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019

MASSSHOOTINGS

And so, according to all the
available evidence, this is
exactly who we are.
It’s obvious if you confront
the reality. Mass shootings are
so routinenow that it is possi-
ble, unless you have a personal
connection to a particular
massacre, to forget quitere-
cent tragedies entirely.
The shooting at a garlic fes-
tival in Gilroy, Calif., a week
ago wouldalready be totally
forgotten by the public at large
wereit not for the unusual set-
ting. By next weekit will be
subsumedentirely.
How much do you remem-
ber about the shooting at a Vir-
giniaBeach municipal build-
ing three months ago, where
12 people died? Before El Paso,
it was the deadliest American
massshooting of 2019. It hap-
penedthree monthsago. I had
to look it up.
This is who we are.
Onlythose with somesort
of gimmick attached to them
stand out, whether that’s a re-
cord-breaking number of bul-
let-riddled bodies, an uncom-
monly ghoulish setting like a
school or church or synagogue,
or a uniquely sympathetic set
of victims. In America, a wom-
an described as a “doting
mother and grammy” in her
obituary sitting quietly at her
desk job in the public works
departmentmomentsbefore
she was shot to death is insuf-
ficiently sympathetic.
Sorry, lady and everyone
who loved you: This is who we
are.
And yet, the notionthat
this terrible thing we keep do-
ing is not a fundamental part
of our identity persists, even as
we fail to take any real mea-
sures to stop it fromhappen-
ing againand again.That isn’t
defiance. It’s ineffectual ex-
cuse-making. It’s hopelessness
masquerading as hope.
We regularly refuse to ac-
cept such platitudes whenwe
hear them expressedin other
contexts. Do we take the man
caughton camera shouting
slurs at his wordwhenhe later
says “That’s not who I am?”
You are what you do, buddy.
But somehow“this is not
who we are” has not descend-
ed into self-parody in the man-
ner of “thoughts and prayers”
— a post-shooting mantra so
tiresomethat even the most
craven politicians largely avoid
it at this point. We also dismiss
the disingenuouscalls not to
“politicize” the latest shooting;
apparently nobodytold the El
Paso shooter, whose crime ap-
pears to have been motivated
by white supremacist and anti-
immigrant hatred.

uRAMOS
Continued fromPageA

And still “this is not who we

are” endures, perhaps because

it speaksto something at our

very core.Of course we don’t

want to thinkof ourselves as a

nation that tolerates the indis-

criminate murderof civilians a

dozenor so at a time, for rea-

sons including white suprema-

cy, workplacedissatisfaction,

anti-Semitism, or misogyny, or

someviolentnonsense that

we’ll never understand.

That’s not us, we tell our-

selves. No way.

And yet, El Paso... (about

13 hours elapse)... And yet,

Dayton.

It is past time to admit that

this is precisely who we are: a

nation that willingly trades the

lives of hundredsof innocent

civilians for unencumbered ac-

cess to the weapons best suited

to slaughter them.

Onlywhenwe cometo

termswith that fact — when

we, our publicofficials and

ourselves, stop deluding one

another about it — will we

have a chance to change it.

When we admit that allow-

ing thesemassacres to contin-

ue is in fact a choice we are

making, maybe then we will be

able to closethe gapingloop-

holesin our background-check

laws. Maybe then we will insti-

tute a strongfederal ban on

the kind of weapons that make

it possible for a murderous

Ohioman to kill nine people

and wound27 morein undera

minute.

In the meantime, this is

who we are: the land of the

free and the homeof the dead.

Nestor Ramoscanbe reached

at [email protected].

It’s time to admit it: This is who we are

Kristi Cornett, who lost a family
friend in a mass shooting in Au-
rora, Colo., and joinedMoms
Demand Action in her homeof
Nashville after the Pulse night-
club shootingin Orlando.“We
didn’t knowwhat it was going
to turninto,but it felt like
something special.”
Just hoursafter a march
many described as a cathartic
experience, they awoke to more
soul-crushing news. A gunman
in Dayton, Ohio, opened fire in
a nightlife district, killingnine
people. “Today I am very sad,”
said Kristen Bauer, a Moms De-
mandAction volunteerin Ar-
lington.
The twin tragedies— com-
ing withina weekof a third
massshootingat a festival in
Northern California— man-
aged to stun a nation that has
almost becomeimmuneto the
constant news of gun violence.
There wereswift and bipar-
tisandenunciationsof the at-
tacks.But gun-controladvo-
cates, congressional Demo-
crats, andtheparty’s
presidential candidates pushed
for more. They called for Senate
majority leaderMitch McCon-
nell to take up bipartisan legis-
lation tighteningbackground
checksthat he has sat on since
it passed the House last winter.
But even as law enforcement
officialsprovidednew details

uGUNCONTROL
ContinuedfromPageA

aboutthe horrorsin El Paso

and Dayton this weekend,the

reality quicklyset in acrossa

politically divided nation: With-

out similarcalls from Republi-

cans in Washington, whichdid

not comeon Sunday, there is

unlikely to be any kind of legis-

lative response, pushingthe is-

sue to the fore of the 2020 presi-

dential campaign.

“We are at a tippingpoint in

terms of public debate,” said

AdamWinkler, a gun-policy ex-

pert and law professorat the

University of California Los An-

geles. “But Republicans still

control the Senate, Trumpstill

controlsthe WhiteHouse.

There is not going to be any sig-

nificant change as long as those

two things continue to exist.”

House Democrats have in-

troduced dozens of proposals to

addressgun violence, including

legislation to revive bans on as-

sault weapons and large-capaci-

ty magazines that expired in

2004. They made major prog-
      ress in March whenthey passed
      two bipartisan measures —
      long blocked whenRepublicans
      controlled the House — to
      strengthenand expand back-
      ground checks. One wouldgive
      federal law enforcementoffi-
      cials moretime to complete the
      verification process, the other
      would require that it be applied
      to purchases beyondthose at li-
      censed dealers, including those
      at gun shows, online, and in

other private settings.

Butthe measureshave

stalled underMcConnell in the

Senate, and his office would not

commentSunday on whether

he would allow a vote.

McConnelltweeted Sunday

morning that it was “sickening

to learn this morning of anoth-

er massmurderin Dayton,

Ohio overnight” and that “We

stand withlaw enforcement as

they continueworkingto keep

Americans safe and bring jus-

tice.”

David Popp, his communica-

tionsdirector, on Sunday said

only that McConnell had

tripped that morning outside

on his homepatio and suffered

a fracturedshoulder. He was

treated and was workingfrom

homein Louisville, wherehe

contacted Republican Senators

John Cornyn of Texas and Rob

Portman of Ohioto expresshis

sympathies and “discuss the

senseless tragedies of this week-

end,” Popp said in a statement.

The difference in approach

to the massshootingsfrom

Democratic and Republican

lawmakers was further on dis-

play at a news conference in

Dayton, where Senator Sherrod

Brown, Portman’s Democratic

colleague,describedhis emo-

tionsafter the initial concerns

for the victims and first re-

sponders.

“My next thoughtwas anger

at our country and society and

our Congress for not doingany-

thingaboutthis,” he said, call-

ing for McConnellto bringthe

Senate backintoemergency

session to approve the House

background-check legislation

this week.

“We certainlypray for the

victims and care about the vic-

tims, but Congress needs to do

something,” he said.

Speaking immediately after

him,Portmansaid Congress

could only do so much, point-

ing to suicide and drug-addic-

tion rates as well as a mental

health crisis.

“Are there morethings that

can be done? I’m sure thereare,

but I will say there’s something

deeper going on here,” Portman

said. “There aren’t enough

laws, and in fact no law can cor-

rect someof the morefunda-

mentalcultural problemswe

face today as a country, and the

shootinglast nightis an indica-

tion of that.”

President Trumpechoed

thosethoughtsin comments

Sunday afternoon.

“If you look at both of these

cases,this is mental illness,”

Trumpsaid as he boarded Air

Force One in New Jersey Sun-

day to returnto Washington,

promisingto deliver a morede-

tailedstatementon Monday.

“Theseare really people that

are very very seriously mentally

ill.”

Gun policy experts called the

deflection to mental illness and

otherpotential causes, such as

drug addiction, rock music, and

videogames,an old diversion-

ary tactic.

“All of thesethingsare rele-

vant to discuss and look at, but

noneof these get to the root

causeof what is causing this vi-

olence — which is easy access to

firepower,” said Robert Spitzer,

a political scientist at the State

University of New York at Cort-

land.“You can’t commita mass

shooting if you can’t get guns.”

In the 2020election cam-

paign, young activists have al-

readyelevated the issueof gun

control,even though it has not

historically played well in the

Southand interiorregions of

the country, where Republicans

and the NationalRifle Associa-

tion have stoked fearsthat the

governmentcouldtake away

people’s guns. Polls showthat

an overwhelming and biparti-

san majority of Americans sup-

port expandedbackground

checks.A majority of Ameri-

cans, mainly Democrats, sup-

port a ban on assault weapons.

Democratic presidential

candidateson Sunday rushed to

call for action on gun-control

legislationand to condemn

Trump’s rhetoric,whichthey

blamed for inflamingthe white

nationalism that law enforce-

mentofficials believe spurred

the attack at a Walmart in El

Paso now under investigation

as a case of domestic terrorism.

Democratic candidate Beto

O’Rourke, who is from El Paso,

said Sunday that he agreed with

a descriptionof Trump as a

white nationalist.

“It is not just President

Trump,but he’s certainly — as

the person in the position of

greatest public trust in power —

most responsible for it,”

O’Rourke said. “This is what

we’re seeingon the Internet.

This is the toleration of intoler-

anceand hatred and racismin

this country. This is what we’re

seeing heretoday, and it will

continue to happen unless we

call it out and unless we change

it.”

Reach JazmineUlloa at

[email protected] on

Twitter: @jazmineulloa

Renewed calls for gun control amid a divided political reality

‘We areat a tipping

pointin termsof

publicdebate.But

Republicansstill

controltheSenate,

Trumpstill controls

theWhiteHouse.’

ADAM WINKLER, gun-policy

expertandUCLAlawprofessor

MARIOTAMA/GETTY IMAGES

MEGANJELINGER/AFP/GETTYIMAGES

MARK LAMBIE/ELPASOTIMESVIA ASSOCIATEDPRESS

Peopleheldhandsat a churchvigilforthevictimsin El Paso (top);El

Pasoansfloodedfacilitiesin thecity onSunday to donate blood(above);

in Dayton,Ohio,policemarkedevidencefromthat city’s massshooting.