By MARSHA MERCER
Not even the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history
surprises us.
Shocked, saddened, angry – yes, all three. But if
we’re honest we aren’t surprised anymore when a monster with a high-powered
weapon – or weapons -- kills many people he has never met.
We’ve developed a sickening ritual around mass murder.
The news comes with horrifying images and the awful audio of staccato pops and
screams. Then, inspiring stories of true heroes, the brave first responders,
and heart-rending bios of victims whose lives are tragically cut short.
We pray and hold moments of silence and candlelight
vigils. We ponder how someone could do the
unthinkable.
Politicians play their assigned roles: The president
makes somber remarks, congressional Republicans demand that Democrats stop politicizing
the tragedy, and Democrats call for sensible gun control. The gun lobby hunkers
down.
And we go on to the next man-made catastrophe.
We’ve had more than half a century to learn the drill.
On Aug. 1, 1966, a young man dragged a footlocker with three rifles, two
pistols, a sawed-off shotgun and provisions – including Spam, canned peaches,
toilet paper and deodorant -- to the observation deck on the 30th
floor of the University of Texas Tower.
He took aim from his high perch and started shooting.
When the 96-minute rampage was over, 14 people were dead, and at least 33 others
were wounded.
A campus became a killing field. Americans were shocked,
saddened, angry – and, yes, surprised. How could this happen?
The shooter was a university student named Charles
Whitman, 25, a former Eagle Scout, ex-Marine, sharpshooter. He had killed his
mother and wife hours earlier.
Whitman, it turned out, had complained of severe
headaches and depression and had told a psychiatrist he fantasized about
killing people from the Tower.
He left a suicide note asking that his brain be
examined to “see if there is any mental disorder.”
Doctors found a malignant brain tumor the size of a
pecan but were never sure if it affected Whitman’s behavior. Experts still
don’t agree on his motive.
Motive is again the question as we desperately try to
make sense of senseless carnage, this time on the Las Vegas strip.
Stephen Paddock, 64, had no police record. A high-stakes
gambler, he checked into the Mandalay Bay resort and casino with 10 suitcases.
On Sunday night, he set up guns at two windows in his 32nd floor suite.
He rained bullets down on a country music festival, killing 58 people and
wounding nearly 500. He killed himself as police approached.
Mary Ellen O’Toole, a forensics expert at George Mason
University, believes Paddock may have studied Whitman to prepare for his
rampage. It’s possible. Paddock was 13 when
Whitman made worldwide news. So far, though,
there’s no evidence he did so.
Paddock reportedly had 23 guns and 12 “bump stocks” at
the hotel. The device makes a semiautomatic rifle act like an automatic, so instead
of having to pull the trigger time after time, he could spray bullets as if he
had a machine gun.
Congressional Republicans insist it’s too soon to
consider gun control legislation – but it always is. Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
Democrat of California, introduced a bill Wednesday to make bump stocks and
similar devices illegal.
Even before Feinstein introduced the bill, gun shops
around the country reported a spike in sales of bump stocks. Banning the lethal
device is eminently sensible, so it probably won’t happen.
“Nothing will change after the Las Vegas shooting” was
the chilling headline in The New York Times on an op-ed by former Rep. Steve
Israel, Democrat of New York.
The National Rifle Association used to support
sensible measures but “now is forced to oppose them because of competing
organizations,” Israel wrote.
Part of the blame goes to redistricting, which pulls
Republicans farther right, making them more subject to the NRA’s score, he
said, and part to Americans’ numbness to gun violence.
“You’ll watch or listen to the news and shake your
head, then flip to another channel or another app,” Israel wrote. “This
horrific event will recede into our collective memory.”
That’s what happened in 1966. It sadly has happened
hundreds of times since and very likely will happen again. It’s the routine we
have chosen.
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