When Violence is Not News

The fresh horror out of Virginia this morning: a news anchor and camera man went to work. Same as every day. But while they were filming, they were shot and killed. Live. On the air.

It is a truly heartbreaking story. I do not know much about the lives of Alison Parker and Adam Ward; but I am certain that the people who loved them just received the worst phone call of their lives. And that they continue to live a nightmare of a day–one that will not be over soon.

This loss of life is completely senseless. Whether we knew the victims or not, it makes us sad. It makes us angry… but it does not surprise us.

And that is the truly terrifying part of this story–that nobody, anywhere finds this shocking. It is just another day in the news in America.

I do not know. I do not know what more can be said about the gross idolization of weapons in this country. About the juggernaut special interest groups like the NRA that seem to have unlimited resources and boundless political influence. I do not know how they can be stopped. I do not know how we begin to crack away at the dogmatic attachment to guns as a symbol of freedom. I do not know what it will take to convince America that yes, guns DO in fact kill people. That is all they do. It is all they will ever do.

Do not tell me that “if they don’t have a gun, they’ll find a knife,” etc. That may be true in a TINY slim fractional fragment of cases. But ultimately, guns are the tool of the impulsive, the angry, the irrational, and the completely detached-from-reality. Most of these shooters–who are just kind of daily characters on any given news day, these days–if they had to take a minute to find a knife, and get close enough to a person to do actual harm with them, they would maybe have to reconsider the fact that they are about to take a life. And also, in a large crowd of people, you can kill exactly one person with a knife before another person, or group of people, hopefully, intervenes. Chances are slim that you would have the time, and wherewithall, to kill 2 people with a knife.

Or 6. Or 20.

But when it comes to guns, all bets are off. Guns are quick. Guns are powerful. Guns do not see crowds as barriers–only as a larger target.

I do not know. I do not know what it takes to get this over to people who do not get it. I do not know how we find a kind of ‘freedom’ that does not cost so horribly many lives.

But I do know it is time to change the conversation. It’s time to talk less about ‘banning’ weapons, since that never seems to gain traction, and talk more about mental healthcare. It’s time to talk less about ‘controlling’ weapons, since so many find that language threatening, and talk more about personal responsibility on the part of those who manufacture and sell them. Maybe it’s time to talk less about law and legislation, and more about the casual, every day ways that we validate, even glorify violence as a way of life.

It is time to change the narrative.

Because as long as we do not know how to change any of this, daily shootings will continue to not really be news. Even when it happens live, on the actual news.