I’ll say it again: I don’t want to be murdered.
Is that a controversial statement? Is it a unique perspective? Is it inherently political?
I don’t think so. I’d expect all 300 million of my fellow Americans to instantly agree with that statement. I expect all seven billion of us on the planet to agree.
I don’t want to be murdered.
On the Monday after the shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, I went to work. I’m a school psychologist.
Dr. Dewey Cornell, a professor at the University of Virginia, estimates that the average school can expect an incident of student-perpetrated homicide every 13,870 years. I know that schools are safe places and that a mass-murder where I work is highly unlikely.
I was scared when I headed out the door on 12/17 and even more scared when I turned onto the street with the school in view.
I don’t want to be murdered.
Not only that, but my job puts me on the school’s crisis response team so I have a responsibility to the students and to the rest of the staff.
Like many educational professionals in America, I showed up for work on 12/17 because of my sense of duty.
If not wanting to be murdered is a universal, almost bland sentiment, and if the need for safe schools is obvious, is a right, like these things seem to be, then why are we seeing a reprise of the ugly dynamics of the November elections?
Everyone is scared. Fear leads to anger leads to self-centeredness leads to conflict.
The firearms industry generated $31.8 billion in 2011.
There are almost 200,000 persons employed in making, distributing, and selling guns, with an average salary of $140,000. That’s a lot of jobs and a lot of money in a bad economy.
What if an act of government could wipe out your income?
The gun industry is scared.
It’s no wonder that the National Rifle Association proposed armed guards for every school in America. With about 119,000 schools in this country, that proposal would mean at least $200 million for the gun industry.
Where does the NRA’s money go? In 2011, the NRA spent $2,905,000 of it to lobby members of Congress. The NRA is a very good political organization. It watches every candidate and every vote and it has caused the defeat of politicians.
If you’re a politician, a single act could get you defeated, could wipe out your income. Politicians are scared.
The rest of us are scared, too. We’re caught in the literal crossfire at the theater and the office and the mall and the school and the metaphorical crossfire among the politicians and industries. We use our money to buy food so we can’t afford to buy senators. As John McCutcheon said, “The blood and the speeches we’ve all heard before. The battle goes on and we are just in their way.”
Here’s the best part, though: we are citizens and we are consumers and that puts us in charge. We don’t have to buy the catchy lies. We can demand a solution and it’s probably not going to be “all guns” or “no guns.”
Some of us think that the solution is to be able to shoot back and others think that the solution is for no one to be able to shoot at us.
None of that seems unreasonable, but if you agree with shooting back, or no one shooting at you, then you’re also expected to buy a whole bunch of other accessories.
Everyone is scared and seeking safety among like-minded persons in familiar, rigid positions. All of that makes it hard to find a solution.
Though some common themes emerge among mass-murderers, each one is different, so it’s almost impossible for one act or tactic to eliminate the phenomenon from America. One incident is one too many.
However, let’s start by agreeing on one point and let’s keep coming back to it. If you agree with it then, regardless of who you wanted for President, you are the same as me:
I don’t want to be murdered.
Let’s organize and prioritize and act. Let’s do it right now, because sure enough, the next mass-murderer is out there somewhere, organizing and prioritizing and planning to act.
He’s laughing at us, attacking each other with words, because he intends to attack us with something much deadlier. While we make each other weaker, he gets stronger. We don’t know how much time we have but we know that we have less with each minute that we waste.
Whatever we do will have to be something new, because the old methods haven’t worked. New is also scary, but not as scary as being murdered.
We don’t want to be murdered.
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