Tragedy in Las Vegas 10/1/17

While she is not one of my students, I am sharing this memo from VC’s President: “I am saddened to share with you the news that a Ventura College student, Savannah N. Sanchez, was involved in the horrible incident that occurred in Las Vegas this past Sunday night. Information is limited at this time. Our personal counselors, located in the Student Health Center are available to provide counseling to you, your classmates, or anyone who may be affected by this event. Personal Counseling Services (PCS) is located in the Student Health Center directly behind the Performing Art Center and can be reached at 805-289-6346.”

Here’s a link to a GoFundMe for Savannah. The most recent update from last night by Sarina Mendez says: “Savannah has been opening her eyes more today & she has been moving her legs and arms but hasn’t woken up yet.”

At this point I don’t know why the shooter targeted who he did or why he did it. I don’t even know yet how many people he killed — will it be 60 or more? Many people are still in the hospitals. Many more who did not require surgery are injured in other ways, both physically and emotionally.

We do know that guns regulation or control will not be a result of this tragedy.

Guns will never be banned; we need to learn how to coexist to reduce the average of 92 deaths every day in America. Did you know since 1970, more Americans have died from guns than died in all U.S. wars going back to the American Revolution?

And that itself is the biggest tragedy: that there will be more shootings.

That two years after a young man began shooting in his community college classroom, among other tragedies, we just talk about how tragic it is — and nothing changes because we lack the political will.

Or to be more precise, too many of our elected representatives lack to will.

I’m not saying repeal the Second Amendment. That would be foolish. But I do appreciate it each time someone points out the during the time of the framing of the Constitution the guns that were available were slow to load muskets.

So what can be done? What can we do?

Guns are regulated by states. While California has stricter rules, all someone has to do is travel to another state and bring the weapon back.

A friend recently posted on Facebook about the importance of compassion and removing ourselves from violence by choice — for example, violence in movies, television, or games. While he notes that cutting back on the consumption of violence may slowly change our cultural norms, that won’t solve the problem entirely.  Which leads him to ask and I echo his question: what do you think we could do to reduce the toll of gun violence without regulation? What solutions might work that don’t require federal or state regulation?

Further reading:

From McSweeney’s: THINGS MORE HEAVILY REGULATED THAN BUYING A GUN IN THE UNITED STATES

“Combining the best of both worlds – yoga pants and concealed carry … Not sure if your handgun will fit? Don’t worry! All concealed carry handguns fit!” — UnderTech UnderCover on Pinterest.

From McSweeney’s: HOW TO DO A HEADSTAND WHILE WEARING CONCEALED CARRY YOGA PANTS by JANINE ZEITLIN  

• More about others from Ventura County who died from gunfire at the event.
  
• Read about Scott “Scooter” Krupp, 54, of Ojai in the VC Reporter.

And related in my mind: “Every Trump voter is most certainly not a white supremist,” Ta-Nehisi Coates writes, “But every Trump voter felt it acceptable to hand the fate of the country over to one.” From “We were Eight Years In Power: An American Tragedy.” Jennifer Senior, NYT, Oct 3, 2017

Because in the same way, while every gun owner is NOT a mass murderer, every gun owner who does not work for regulation is complicit in every killing.