There is no generous interpretation for the past 23 years of inaction. We all bear some of the blame
If you want to ponder how deeply broken and dysfunctional our system of governance is, all you have to do is to reflect upon the fact that our nation experiences regular mass murders of schoolchildren by gunmen, and these mass murders are followed by no meaningful political action. To sit with that basic fact for even a few moments is to feel like you are beginning to lose your grip on reality. It sounds like the gut-roiling reveal from a horror movie, or a dystopian novel about the wealthiest country in the history of the world, which has at its heart a horrible secret. We are that country, and our wealth is soaked in blood. Our learned helplessness on the issue of guns is so deeply rooted that many people – including, unfortunately, our elected leaders – cannot even see how much of our system must be ripped apart, if we ever want to stop seeing massacres.
It should make all of us queasy that we are still here, wringing our hands. The school shooting at Columbine happened 23 years ago. There is no generous interpretation for the past 23 years of inaction. We all bear some of the blame, in the sense that we have acquiesced to a cycle in which many of the people in charge today have failed over and over again to make serious gun control a reality, as thousands and thousands of Americans have lost their lives. But that’s a little too pat to get at the heart of what is really happening.
Hamilton Nolan is a writer in New York City. He is currently writing a book about the labor movement
