Student shootings are horrible events, especially for those who remember dropping off children at schools that look very much like the one near Houston.
Nevertheless, it’s good to see that we are not blaming guns or letting left-wing groups use high school students to carry their message.
The Los Angeles Times noticed the difference between South Florida and Houston in this report:
There was no outcry against firearms in Santa Fe after a gunman killed 10 and wounded 13 others Friday. Guns didn’t come up at a prayerful vigil attended by 1,000 people that evening. On Saturday, there were no protests, and local leaders don’t expect any Sunday.
But three months earlier in Parkland, Fla., the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School that left 17 dead unleashed a movement, with students and parents of the dead organizing, protesting and calling for expanded gun control laws.
Their activism led to school walkouts nationwide, voter registration drives and massive demonstrations, including the March for Our Lives in Washington.
Polls show the U.S. remains deeply divided about guns, and the responses in Parkland and Santa Fe help explain why.
Residents in both cities say something needs to be done about school shootings, but there’s no agreement on what that something should be.
I am not surprised how Houston reacted to this.
First, the alleged killer violated at least two current laws to pull off his attack, from taking his father’s guns to bringing them to a “gun-free” school. What new law would have stopped him?
Second, the parents in Houston are probably gun owners and understood quickly that the solution has nothing to do with regulating guns.
Third, Governor Greg Abbott immediately invited all sides to a roundtable to discuss the school shooting issue. Unlike Florida, the authorities did not leave a vacuum to be filled by the anti-NRA crowd.
A horrible day in Houston. At least, it was not compounded by turning the NRA into the villain.
