A national epidemic of mass shootings, with a particular focus on schools as targets, shows no signs of abating anytime soon as the volatile mix of guns and mental health continues to go unaddressed legislatively. It’s time to redefine what’s happening here: Monday’s school shooting in St. Louis wasn’t just a crazed act of a lone gunman. This was terrorism.
What’s the difference if the scenes are screaming, panicked people running from the collapsing World Trade Center buildings or screaming, panicked people fleeing a public school? All experienced terror inflicted by deranged people who had, in their twisted minds, found a rationale for committing mass violence. Whether it was the al-Qaida hijackers behind the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks or shooters like Orlando Harris on Monday, the common motive is to inflict mass bloodshed and maximum casualties.
Harris punched or shot his way into the Central Visual and Performing Arts high school on Monday, then was quoted by a survivor as telling his would-be victims: “You are all going to (expletive) die.”
Because of the quick and decisive police response, Harris’ reign of terror ended quickly and with minimal casualties — one student and a teacher dead (along with Harris), and seven students wounded. In the American news cycle, that barely rated a blip because the toll wasn’t high enough to warrant heavy national coverage. That’s how, to this nation’s shame, it has learned to absorb these horrors and move on.
Before 9/11, Americans had come to accept terrorist acts by Muslim extremists as something society was largely powerless to affect. But today, the ability of groups like al-Qaida to hijack planes for use as weapons has ended. Why? Because everyone now agrees that the sacrifice of basic freedoms is a small price to pay for survival. Airplane cockpits are now hardened fortresses. Americans agree to partially disrobe and submit their belongings to searches at airports. Not so much as a water bottle gets past a security checkpoint.
Even a week before 9/11, Americans would have responded with a resounding “Hell no!” if asked whether such sacrifices were merited for the cause of public safety. But there’s one undeniable truth today: The terrorists have been denied airplanes as their weapon of choice. Some still respond “hell no” when asked to deny weapons of choice used by school-shooter terrorists.
Despite metal detectors and active-shooter drills at schools, gaping vulnerabilities still exist. AR-15-style firearms like the one Harris used remain largely unrestricted for adults, with few exceptions. High-capacity magazines and ammunition remain easily accessible. Harris brought magazines and 600 rounds with him.
Conservative lawmakers and Gov. Mike Parson refuse to consider restrictions, citing mythical gun rights that simply do not exist in the Second Amendment. Because of Missouri lawmakers' inexplicable intransigence, future domestic terrorists like Harris remain free to strike again because no one has the courage to deny them their weapons of choice.
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