I was surprised and saddened to learn of the shooting in Boulder, Colorado, yesterday. Saddened, of course, because the shootings just continue to happen every so many months and year after year across the nation. Colorado has especially been the victim of shooting tragedies, most notably the Columbine High School massacre in 1999. Boulder with its beautiful university and other-worldly affluence somehow seemed an unlikely place for gun violence. During my son\u2019s student years there, I spent a lot of time enjoying the city and environs.<\/p>\n
What can I say? What can any of us say as to why these awful killings keep happening? Those of my generation look back and note that such shootings simply did not happen when we were young. Why?<\/p>\n
Even before this latest tragedy is sorted out, the truth is that we know what is going to be done to prevent further atrocities\u2014virtually nothing. The two political parties will go into their individual corners and come out fighting, issuing party line statements and refusing to work together. The Democrats will push for legislation such as background checks and bans on military style weapons; the Republicans will retreat behind the Second Amendment and repeat their shibboleths that \u201cguns don\u2019t kill people, people do\u201d and blame the killings on poor mental health. Concerned citizens will form groups to lobby and be largely ignored, and the issue will die down until the next shooting.<\/p>\n
I certainly don\u2019t know the answer to our endemic gun violence. But I do know this: in the past many of us had guns, but there was not the proliferation of semi-automatic assault rifles and large magazine weapons that exist today. I also know that all of us, regardless of our political beliefs, should work together and not let this issue go until we have exhausted all efforts to identify and resolve its causes.<\/p>\n