To the Editor:
I was working at my part-time job serving tables when I learned there was a mass shooting only around 15 minutes away from Franklin.
“It’s just crazy” was the general sentiment. My boss shared it. A customer. A coworker. A friend. My mom. A strong consensus found that the best way to describe the tragedy was “crazy.”
But was it? What made this so crazy? This was the 352nd event of its kind just this year alone. And guns are now the leading cause of death for kids my age in America. So what makes this so different?
Perhaps it was that a civilian was the one who had to stop this almost otherworldly evil. That, once again, those elected and selected to protect us failed in doing so.
Or perhaps it was the proximity. That maybe this evil was not so otherworldly after all. It was crazy that something like this could happen so close to home. That this could actually feel so real.
Issues tend to only feel real when they are close. So maybe you think you understand that there is a problem that needs solved. And maybe you even condemn those that don’t. But you don’t fight too hard against it, because until it touches your life, it doesn’t become real.
It’s hard to look outside of our very small town into the much larger world and understand its problems. It’s hard to hear outside of the four walls always protecting you until the problem finally comes so close that it breaks one down. And until then, nothing is harder than listening when someone explains the need for change.
People often wonder how we got here. To a place where tens of thousands of Americans die in less than one year in mass shootings. “What path brought us here? What wrong turn did we take?” they wonder.
Maybe this is not a destination we’ve come to, but rather a failure to move forward in the first place. In the mouth of an American, freedom means little more than selfishness, and individualism little more than apathy. We are a nation resigned to easy answers and half-hearted concern. We are a nation afraid of making any change even when no change at all is killing us.
So yes, the shooting was “crazy” but not unheard of. What’s crazy about it is the fact that we have become so numb to this consistent loss of life. It should not be shocking. Because shock has not spurred any change.
Gavin Fisk
Franklin
