Quick Take: We Need Action, Not Angst

Some practical proposals for deterring and defeating murderous violence

We must think strategically, not emotionally…

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The mass shooting in a Uvalde, Texas elementary school has yielded the usual crop of angst-ridden articles on the sickness afflicting the American soul, sometimes accompanied by political point-scoring and virtue signaling. I don’t entirely disagree with this line of commentary, though my thoughts on the source of that national sickness might not align with the conventional wisdom of the Left. Anyhow, reactions in this vein aren’t much use. Right now we’re confronted with a hard, practical question: What’s to be done?

To answer that question it will first be necessary to clear away some deadwood. Horrific as they are, mass shootings are not the whole problem. They’re only the most frightening manifestations of a general spike in murderous violence over the past few years. Nor is it entirely a problem of gun violence, though guns play a prominent part. A murder victim who’s pushed off a subway platform into the path of an oncoming train ends up just as dead as one who’s shot through the head—and the latter crime is no more heinous because perpetrated with a Glock. And finally, the idea that gun control would do anything to lower the level of violence has to be abandoned. Of all the measures that might be taken to reduce violence in America, gun control is the most clumsy, inefficient, politically divisive one.

So that’s that. Now, what can we do?

There are three practical measures that could effectively address this admittedly difficult problem. (1) Bring back the so-called carceral state. (2) Enact and enforce red flag laws. (3) Harden the most likely targets.

(1) Bail reform, catch and release, all those pet projects of progressive prosecutors, have to go. It should be obvious by now that it’s a bad, bad idea to abolish bail for arrested suspects with a documented record of criminal violence or worse, to refuse to prosecute them, or worse still to impose nominal sentences on felons convicted of violent crimes. And progressives who argue that aggressive prosecution would disproportionately impact blacks can just shut up as far as I’m concerned. Who do they think the victims are? Disproportionately black, that’s who. Putting violent felons behind bars is the best, most efficient method of reducing violent felonies, and we need to resume doing it.

(2) Red flag laws impose a requirement for school teachers and administrators, etc. to report to law enforcement their suspicions that an individual is potentially dangerous. Every state should have such a law on its books. They cannot be counted on to prevent all mass shooting, but they can certainly reduce them. New York State has such a law, and it actually brought the Buffalo shooter onto law enforcement’s radar screen. But the final step, seeking a court order to prevent the shooter from legally purchasing firearms, was never taken. Thus the weapons he used were legally purchased after he passed a background check. So yes, red flag laws are good—but only if they’re aggressively enforced.

(3) One of the stupidest things we’ve done is piously to proclaim that schools and other venues are “gun-free zones.” Obviously this can do nothing to deter a mass shooter, while rendering his targets utterly defenseless. Many—not all—schools do have an armed police resource officer on campus, which is better than nothing but not good enough. What needs to happen is this. Identify staff and faculty members who have a law enforcement or military background or are otherwise qualified and willing to serve, put them through a training program, and empower them to carry firearms on campus. Ignore the fools who whine that such a policy would make them feel “unsafe.” A shooter who attempts to enter a school is an invader who can only be repelled by an active defense. And the more defenders, the better the chances of preventing a massacre.

There are other practical things that can be done to reduce the likelihood of mass shootings over time, such as improved physical security and better mental health screening. But the three measures I’ve described above can and should be done now—that is, if we’re more interested in working the problem than we are in playing politics and virtue signaling.