Politics is the diversion of trivial men who, when they succeed at it, become important in the eyes of more trivial men.
– George Jean Nathan
Let’s begin with a word problem: The United States has experienced 1,624 mass shootings in 1,870 days. Over the years, many shootings took place in a school, resulting in 137 deaths since Columbine. Overall, the largest body counts were in Las Vegas (59), Orlando (50), Newtown (28), Sutherland Springs (27), Parkland (17), San Bernardino (16), and Aurora (12). Those are among 35 mass shootings that involved use of an AR-15 style rifle. Many assailants were able to legally acquire their weapons, including the AR-15s, while displaying symptoms of mental unbalance. Choose the most appropriate resolution to the problem:
- Prevent the sale of AR-15s and similar weapons, so that would-be mass shooters would not have access to them.
- Do nothing.
- Ban violent video games.
According to Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem and others, the correct answer is “C.”
The Sky Is Falling
I call her “Sister Mary Nowhere” to protect her privacy, assuming she’s still around. She was a real person, a Sister of Charity who taught at a parochial high school. Her meltdown came in a room filled with nature’s most fidgety, frustrating and unforgiving creatures: high school sophomores. Sister Mary Nowhere was thrown to the wolves.
Mental illness can come on gradually and it’s not easy to determine the point at which the ore cart is shoved into the Crazy Mine, but I think I know when Sister Mary Nowhere was shoved: during Sophomore English class. She was walking between a row of desks and the outside wall with windows when she spied an object she didn’t recognize in an unoccupied desk. She reached down, picked it up, turned it over, turned it over again, raised it to a higher angle to get a better look. She was the only person in the room who didn’t know what it was. Initially shocked when Sister Mary Nowhere began to physically examine and fondle the object, some students began to giggle. Most of us did our best to keep from laughing out loud, although we teared up from the strain. Sister Mary Nowhere detected a disturbance in the force.
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