This one broke my heart deeper than before. This one was different.
There have been lots and lots of mass shootings, of course. All of them are ridiculous, unthinkable, catastrophic, stemming from twisted minds on the trigger and obsessed minds in legislatures. The bodies pile up.
So far, one of them happened on the west side of Milwaukee, within a couple of miles from where I've been living. Some guy gets fired and figures to kill himself so he takes others with him. People at my church on the East Side got pretty scared.
But he had someone in mind. Nothing random about that, like in Austin, Texas three weekends ago. More and more, that's starting to be a mere stroke of luck. You wonder, if you go out into the street now, whether your dice will come up snake-eyes and you'll be staring at someone's lethal barrel.
In the meantime, though, the distance provides something of a buffer, though watching the reports continues to shock and devastate. But you can at least turn off the TV and move forward, perhaps more mindful and cautious than before, if that will make any discernible difference.
The other day, though, another one of these outrageous shootings took place in a spot I used to know fairly well. I used to live in Austin, and once you establish yourself there, you just have to try out Sixth Street.
It has a collection of honky-tonk bars, playing (mostly) honky-tonk music. It's where fledgling musicians, those with something bigger on their minds, gather to try out their wares and hope to get someone's attention.
The effects are largely terrific. The music fairly pours out the doors into the street. Just take your pick, stay an hour, and try another one. There's something fun to enjoy literally all night.
On weekends, especially Friday night, the police close down about a eight-block stretch of Sixth and let people cross into bars on both sides, figuring that's what they're going to do anyhow, and if you don't know how to drive around that stretch, you probably shouldn't be there (there's always Seventh, not nearly as much fun west of I-35, except if you go east of it, there are great restaurants. Just sayin'.).
If you're a tourist, there's little doubt that whatever guides you've read has directed you here. Beale Street in Memphis, Music Row in Nashville, and Bourbon Street in New Orleans have the same kind of vibe. You take your time, you have a few drinks, you can go most of the night if you want, you take in the culture. You duck your head in there someplace and you can't go wrong.
Until three weekends ago, when someone in Austin decided to shoot as many people as he could get away with. And, in fact, whoever it was did get away; he (I assume it was a 'he') hasn't been caught yet.
In a perverted way, that makes sense. If the area is blocked off from traffic, that also means that police cars will find barriers as well. That wastes time to catch perpetrators. Oh, there are police there, but as usual, nowhere near enough of them to prevent some jackass from taking something out on someone.
He shot 13 people, who were injured to varying degrees. Two were hurt seriously. He was either really drunk, really a bad shot, or really in a hurry, so I guess they were unluckily lucky. I've read no follow-ups, so I don't know if he knew someone in a bar or just decided to go crazy because, like the supermarket assassin in Boulder, he already was.
I know where he walked. It's where I did, like millions of others over the years. It could have easily happened to me. It gave me more chills than normal.
Not that anyone should be surprised any longer. This is Texas, remember, where the governor has signed a bill allowing genuine open carry of weapons there. Never mind the danger, never mind the dismissal of reality; I guess he and the ridiculous Republicans there figure that the best way to stop guns is to bring some of your own.
Except people who have common sense don't like to bring guns, regardless of what state they reside in. They're dangerous. They don't forgive. If you make a mistake, you can't have it back.
A Mexican drug cartel came very nervously close to a bridge leading into McAllen, Texas the other day. The cartel killed 15 people on the Mexican side. The Texas state police and National Guard were called out. But that puts the lie into the signing of that bill. Do you really think that ordinary citizens would be able to protect themselves against such an onslaught? Would they actually have a chance against such an assault?
The same mentality concerning the virus would have to bring about herd immunity to mass shootings: There would have to be weapons demonstrably noticeable by about half of whatever clientele who would be hanging around anywhere for someone that obsessed to notice that shooting a bunch of people would be futile and fatal.
That is NOT going to happen. A decided minority of people own a decided majority of weapons. You can make owning a gun as legal as crossing the street, but like the vaccines, you can't make people partake, regardless of how much good you think it will do them.
And here's the thing: More are getting away with it. Remember that mass shooting recently in Miami? Haven't caught those guys yet, either.
That will embolden others. If people are crazy enough to do this in the first place, they'll grab a gun all that much faster. They might just rush in and open fire like in Boulder (ironically, he survived to stand trial), or planning may take place first.
I wish it looked better. But it doesn't. Expect more of this soon. The pandemic, and ex-, have unleashed something in too many of us, an angry vindictiveness, and it isn't healthy. Besides threatening us and our families, it also threatens democracy because it encourages crackdowns that overreact.
So no, defunding the police isn't a good idea; we need to track these guys down. But neither is turning our cities into armed camps. More arming of more people won't solve this.
I felt the fear this time because I saw myself where others were hit. I predict more will feel it, too.
Be well. Be careful. With some luck, I'll see you down the road.
Mister Mark
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