"If I am not for myself, who
will be for me? And when I am for myself, what am 'I'? And if not now, when?" -
Hillel the Elder
It seemed
like a slam dunk to get guns out of the hands of the wrong people-to
get
stronger background checks – to limit the age that a person could get a gun. But even as that Christmas in 2012 seemed
less merry because there were now 20 more angels in heaven but not on earth to open
their presents and six less adults to offer holiday cheer as we as a nation failed
again to pass any real gun control measures.
The pull of the NRA was just too great and their campaign contributions
too grand. The misguided voices of their
members too strong to weaken the will and effectively castrate any politician
that wanted to stand up to them. It was
a heart-breaking Christmas that year but unimaginable in the grief for the families
that would never tuck their babies in a night, never to hear “I love you Mommy and Daddy!”
In Georgia, our own Lt. Governor Casey
Cagle punished Delta Airlines because they were not going to honor the NRA
discount anymore after the Parkland shooting.
Cagle’s response was to take away the tax benefits that Delta receives
until they reinstated the discount. This
was a brilliant move because Atlanta was on the short list of cities that
Amazon would use for their second headquarters.
But since that little stunt as a bow to the NRA and the punishment for not
extending the discount – Georgia has probably lost an employer who could bring thousands
of jobs to the state.
As a mother, I hate that in the back
of my mind as I send my 17-year-old to school is the silent prayer that I will see
her home safely. She’s not a police officer
or a soldier where something like an attack might be part of a day’s work – she’s
a f*cking high school student. She’s going to school with other children and
teachers who don’t get paid enough to teach much less get training to take down
an active shooter.
I used to
work security at a synagogue in Atlanta and with the world being what it is and
with a school on the premises – we would discuss active shooter drills. We even did one with a police officer dressed
as a sniper and discussed how to react.
As much as I thought I was prepared when he came into the office with a
ski mask – instead of getting out as fast as I could – I cowered under my desk
and was marked “dead.” It taught me a
good lesson – don’t under any circumstance get yourself in a place where you
can’t get out. One good video that I
have reviewed which is called Run, Hide,
Fight and is used by several law enforcement agencies to train people how
to try to save themselves in an active shooter situation. Click here to look at the video. It gives you some sound advice how to survive
something so horrific.
One of the
things that has bothered me when I hear about these shootings is that there
didn’t seem to be a plan much past putting the school on lockdown. The kids are being trained to hide under their
desks which as I found out made me a sitting duck. The teachers need to be trained if they cannot
safely get the kids out of the classroom to a safe space, how to block the door
and arm themselves with mace or scissors and fight like hell to keep the perpetrator
out. It’s not something that might come naturally
but just like a fire drill – once you practice it a few times – it becomes
second nature. In the Virginia Tech
shooting, the students who blocked the doors had the highest survival rate. Even something as simple as a door wedge can
keep someone from entering a room and save lives.
It’s a given
that our national law makers will probably make a good show of saying we need responsible
gun laws and how this should never happen again until sadly it happens
again. Perhaps over the summer, schools can do for
themselves what lawmakers won’t do – address the problem head on and have a
strategic plan. In the confusion of the
shooting in Parkland and other shootings, first responders wasted valuable time
trying to find the perpetrator. Why not
install active shooter sensors that can detect gunfire and pinpoint where the perpetrator is during the shooting spree? These
systems can also alert the teachers and principals where the shooter is so they
can plan escapes accordingly in real time.
My prayer is
that the schools in the Atlanta area as well as all across this nation end the
school year without any more shootings.
But in the tragic aftermath of these shootings, we need to work together
to find a solution. Yes, better mental
health services would help. But as our
President tried to weakly defend his stance at the NRA convention with false
stats about stabbings in Europe, it’s not just about mental health – it’s the ease in
which people in this country can get a gun either legally or by taking a parent’s
or friends firearm. My daughter Amber
and I took part in March for our Lives and it was a very powerful event. There were all types of people and all ages –
from toddlers to people in their 80’s and it was amazing that it was over 20,000
people in the streets of downtown Atlanta.
What struck me was that there were so few anti-protesters in favor of gun
rights – I saw two people. I really
think that going into the mid-terms – momentum is on our side. What I
observed is that for these new voters GOP = NRA and it might spell trouble for
Republicans who don’t take a tougher stand on the NRA.
It should be
obvious that banning bump stocks, automatic and semi-automatic would lower these
casualties – but sometimes obvious does not win and paranoia can make any reasonable
argument seem like an enemy’s dictate. Maybe
mandatory smart guns would stop kids from are taking their parents’ weapons and
turning them on schoolmates -maybe not - but it’s worth a try. Something needs to be done besides “our
thoughts and prayers” because prayer without action means nothing.
