There is one thing Americans, regardless of their position on the red/blue or left/right spectrum, have in common. Every time there is a mass shooting, we ALL hold our breath in hopes that the perpetrator’s background does not conflict with any predisposition about who is responsible for the ever increasing instances of gun violence targeted at innocent individuals. Even if you never hear anyone say it, you know someone, somewhere is thinking, “Please don’t let it be an African-American or Latino. Or an immigrant. Or a progressive activist.” And someone else is thinking, “Please don’t let it be a Trump supporter. Or a religious zealot. Or a white supremacist.”
This was never more on display than the immediate reaction to yesterday’s tragic event at the Annunciation Church in Minnesota when the suspect was identified as transgender. But as the New York Times points out this morning, this case is far more complicated. Growing up, the shooter attended the church affiliated school, and her mother worked there until 2021. Her last known employment was at a cannabis dispensary. She had a gun fixation. She posted antisemitic tropes. This did not stop representatives from every position on the political and ideological map to quickly move into their respective corners.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey urged residents to not make generalizations about the shooter’s gender.
I’ve heard a whole lot of hate directed at our trans community. Anybody that is using this as an opportunity to villainize our trans community — or any other community out there — has lost their sense of common humanity.
Of course, Marjorie Taylor Greene chose not to heed the mayor’s advise, posting the following on X:
Gender dysphoria is a mental illness and children are being targeted by the multi billion dollar medical and pharmaceutical industry. If they are willing to destroy themselves and how God made them then they are willing to destroy others and we saw that happen today.
But if you really want to know how complicated the issue of gun violence has become, the best evidence is the response by Brandon Herrara, a YouTube podcaster, Second Amendment activist and Republican candidate for congressman in Texas. In a social media post, the shooter says she attended a Herrara event. How did Herrara respond? “I’m horrified by this clearly hate-motivated attack on innocent children and disgusted that my name came out of this demon’s mouth.” Did he suggest that such a “demon” should not have access to firearms? Of course not.
So what is the common denominator in these tragic acts of mass violence? Someone with a grievance, whether it be related to race, gender, religion, political affiliation or ideology, has let that real or merely perceived resentment metastasize into a need to bring attention to that injustice through violence. And in virtually every case, that violence involves firearms. Among the voices that arose from yesterday’s events, the most hopeful one came from a truly unexpected source, Trey Gowdy, former South Carolina congressman and Fox News analyst. During a panel discussion on the network’s “Outnumbered” program, Gowdy recognized that guns ARE the common denominator.
And what people are crying for now is how can we prevent this? How can we stop it? And the only way to stop it is to identify the shooter ahead of time or keep the weapons out of their hands.
Sadly, the MAGA-verse, especially the Fox News audience was quick to condemn Gowdy’s remarks, calling them “shameful” and “not conservative.” Still, Gowdy is correct. People of all persuasions can have mental issues. They can get mad when their world seems out of sorts. They can feel that no one understands them. But they cannot produce death and injury on innocent people without a weapon, and the data say that guns are the weapon of choice.
As much as I hate to admit it, one of my least favorite people, FBI Director Kash Patel, may have come up with the solution. Patel posted on X, “The FBI is investigating this shooting as an act of domestic terrorism and hate crime.” In this case the target of hate appears to be the Catholic church, but aren’t all mass shootings acts of hate and terrorism? So let’s treat them the same way we viewed the attacks on September 11, 2001 by doing the following.
- Drape a package of sensible gun safety laws in language such as “The Domestic Patriot Act.”
- Create a color-coded system that helps individuals identify the threat level when an individual exhibits behavior that suggests they may become violent.
- Homeland Security could divert some the $150 billion added to the ICE budget in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” for an “If you SEE something, SAY something” ad campaign focused on gun violence, encouraging everyone to report deviant behavior including social media posts that could be an omen of latent mass violence.
- And finally, pass a “Bad Samaritan Law” with penalties for individuals who enable gun purchases despite knowledge of behaviors or attitudes that the end-users of such firearms might be capable of acts of mass violence.
Is it asking too much for all those who sent “thoughts and prayers” to the victims of the Annunciation Church shooting and their families to reserve a few “thoughts and prayers” for Second Amendment activists, especially members of Congress, who do not understand gun control laws and gun safety laws are two entirely different things. Perhaps then their expressions of faith might proactively make a difference.
For what it’s worth.
Dr. ESP