How to describe the fresh but familiar horror in Uvalde, Texas? How to catalog the carnage in yet another community? How to index the names of the dead—19 school kids and two teachers, as of this writing—and of yet another mass killer, Salvador Ramos? What to say about the renewed calls for elected leaders to do something, anything, to mitigate this uniquely American crisis—and the political wall attempted reforms could once again hit after this latest massacre fades from the headlines?
There’s the nightmare of it all, the outrage. But there’s also the anguish: If the slaughter of 20 children in Newtown wasn’t enough 10 years ago, if Las Vegas and Parkland and countless others weren’t enough, then what hope is there for change now, after Uvalde?
Our leaders don’t seem to know; they, too, seemed to have more questions than answers.
“Why do we keep letting this happen?” a rattled President Joe Biden asked in an address on the Robb Elementary School shooting Tuesday night. “Where in God’s name is our backbone?”
“What are we doing?” Democratic senator Chris Murphy, whose state was torn apart by the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, asked in an emotional floor speech Tuesday. “Why are we here, if not to try to make sure that fewer schools and fewer communities go through what Sandy Hook has gone through, what Uvalde is going through?”
Indeed, why are elected leaders in office right now? Is it to offer up “prayers” for round after round of victims, as Republicans—from state leaders like Texas governor Greg Abbott to federal leaders like Texas senator Ted Cruz—have done? Or is it to serve the interests of their constituents? If it’s the latter, taking some kind of action to combat gun violence would seem to qualify as part of their job description, in a country that has already suffered more than 200 mass shootings this year alone. Arizona representative Ruben Gallego’s frustration was evident Tuesday night.
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If pointing out the failure to act seems naive, it speaks to the utter brokenness of the American political system, which hardly even pretends to have solutions to the problems plaguing the country anymore, thanks to the bad faith and self-interest of Republicans and the total delusion, at best, of some Democrats. “You would think there would be enough common sense” to pass gun reforms without eliminating the filibuster, Joe Manchin told reporters Tuesday, expressing support for gun control legislation but reaffirming his commitment to preserving the procedure that makes such laws impossible in the evenly split Senate. “The filibuster,” Manchin added, “is the only thing that prevents us from total insanity.”
“When are we going to do something?” demanded Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, as he called on senators to act.
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Manchin may move to resurrect the bipartisan, compromise legislation he and retiring Republican senator Pat Toomey introduced following the Sandy Hook shooting. But that modest package, which he insisted on instead of the more robust reforms Barack Obama and other Democrats had called for, already failed before. It’s not clear why this time would be any different. Does he have 10 Republican votes where he didn’t previously? He didn’t when he started talking about his gun reform plan again last year, after a mass shooting in Colorado. Does he have a legislative maneuver to bypass Republicans, who seem to care more about their NRA ratings than their own constituents? He does not, because of his own stubborn dedication to the filibuster. Manchin can talk all he wants about common sense. At the end of the day, though, the only solutions he appears to have are some “thoughts and prayers” that his colleagues on the other side of the aisle will do the right thing.
This madness has played out again and again in this country—twice in about a week, in fact, with Uvalde coming mere days after the racist attack on a grocery market in Buffalo. In most countries, enough would be enough. But this country, for all its talk about protecting children from various imagined horrors, cannot seem to muster the political will to protect its children from the real horrors of Uvalde, Parkland, and Newtown. It can’t even begin to contend with the reality of mass shootings becoming a part of everyday life
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In the immediate aftermath of the Uvalde massacre, there were some political tectonics suggesting at least some kind of legislation could gain ground: Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell expressed his grief at the tragedy; Republican senator Susan Collins hinted at support for some gun law adjustments; and moderate Democrats like Jon Tester seemed more resolved to address the nation’s gun problems. But there was also a quick reversion to the usual bullshit: Before any reasonable reform proposals could even gain footing, there was the typical conservative line about not being able to “stop bad people from doing bad things.”
“We can potentially arm and prepare and train teachers and other administrators to respond quickly,” Texas attorney general Ken Paxton told Fox News Tuesday evening, before the blood of Uvalde kids and teachers was even dry. “That, in my opinion, is the best answer.”
That’s basically been the GOP answer to this for the last 10-plus years: Do nothing and let teachers, grocery store employees, churchgoers, and anyone else unlucky enough to be visited by this nation’s plague of gun violence fend for themselves. Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has already moved to force votes on gun legislation already passed by the House. Though that push is likely to fail, it’ll show where lawmakers stand. But that much was already clear in the years of shameful inaction and deflating insufficiency in the face of tragedy after tragedy. “I’m sick and tired of it,” Biden, by turns desolate and indignant, said in his address Tuesday night. “We have to act.” Yes—but with a Senate like this, how?
This post originally ran on Vanity Fair.
