At nearly the same moment as last week’s mass shooting in Roseburg, Ore., an ominous, coincidental reverberation of that commonplace American theme — school shootings — broke across my own community college campus in south Texas.
At nearly the same moment as last week’s mass shooting in Roseburg, Ore., an ominous, coincidental reverberation of that commonplace American theme — school shootings — broke across my own community college campus in south Texas.
I was talking with a student in a deserted classroom after the last class of the week when my college’s security alert system passed the word the campus was being reinforced by local police in response to a threat made against a student.
Within a few minutes, two colleagues stuck their heads into the classroom to make sure we’d gotten the word. No one panicked or was visibly alarmed. But I suspect for most American teachers, any security threat rouses shades of Columbine and Virginia Tech.
After all, in America mass shootings can occur anywhere — workplaces, churches and certainly colleges and even elementary schools.
On my campus, on this day, nothing came of it. The police came and went. But by the time I walked downstairs to the library lobby, the television was reporting the deaths of at least 10 victims in another mass shooting in America.
No one appeared to be surprised.
By the time I walked to my car, conservative radio host Sean Hannity already was complaining about liberals who would “race to politicize” another mass shooting before we even mourned the victims.
But isn’t this just another way of saying we should never talk about gun violence in our nation — at all?
Some part of our citizenry already accepts bloodshed like that at Umpqua Community College — and at Sandy Hook and Charleston and so on — as another ordinary element of American culture, something we’ll just have to get used to.
But it’s worth remembering the powerful gun lobby has an interest in our acceptance of a new normal that includes plenty of easily accessible guns and a numb toleration of mass shootings as the inevitable byproduct of the freedom to own a weapon.
Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush articulated this perspective with a particularly ham-handed, tone-deaf remark in connection with the Umpqua shooting: “stuff happens.”
I’m not much on conspiracy theories, but it’s not hard to imagine some of the motivation behind recent legislation in Texas reflects the gun lobby’s desire to shift our cultural psychology toward more quiescent acceptance of guns as an ordinary necessity of everyday life.
Thus, during its last session the Texas legislature passed laws that will legalize the open carry of handguns and, beginning next year, students and teachers will be able to carry concealed weapons into college and university classrooms.
Texas administrators and faculty actively oppose this legislation, arguing, with considerable logic, more handguns inevitably will lead to more accidents and suicides. Many law enforcement agencies and associations object, as well, contending more weapons will make their jobs more difficult.
None of these arguments achieved much leverage with a legislature heavily influenced by America’s powerful gun lobby.
So, starting next fall the psychology of higher education in Texas will shift a little — how much remains to be seen.
The handgun already is the essential icon of our culture; it’s impossible to imagine American entertainment — television, movies or video games — without weapons.
In an odd self-fulfilling prophesy, many Americans think handguns are essential to their safety, partly because so many other Americans have them. The prominence of handguns makes them a staple of our amusement and a handy method of conflict resolution.
Now, higher education in Texas will support the psychology behind this perspective. Two new, unwelcome lessons will emerge next year in Texas classrooms:
The first is that our culture has reached a point where it’s impossible to be safe unless you have your own weapon. And, second, despite a level of gun violence unique in the developed world, many American leaders are afraid to confront the powerful, well-funded interests that profit from our infatuation with guns, and, therefore, the murders in Roseburg last week will just have to be tolerated.
In fact, the less said about them, the better.
John M. Crisp, an op-ed columnist for Tribune News Service, teaches in the English Department at Del Mar College in Corpus Christi, Texas. Email him at jcrisp@delmar.edu.