The Country After Tucson

More than a month has passed since the shootings that occurred in Tucson, Arizona that left nineteen wounded, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, and six dead, including Chief Judge John Roll and nine year old Christina-Taylor Green. Now that some time has passed, it is worth taking a moment to look back at what happened, how we reacted to it, and what we might learn from both.

Immediately following the January 8th shootings there was a brief, stunned silence. Soon after came muted bickering that gathered strength until the Wednesday after the event. On that evening, President Obama gave a speech that gracefully captured the moment and consoled the nation. The President’s speech marked a turning point in the national consciousness. As with any tragedy, having come somewhat to terms with what had happened, the nation felt a strong desire to move forward. But doing so prematurely would be a mistake.

The President’s speech was undoubtedly about healing. And it was also about tamping down on the fiery rhetoric that pervades our national conversation. But it didn’t seek those things as an end in themselves. The speech was a call to action. It sought to cool our national rhetoric because it is the best way for us to work together effectively.

Unfortunately, it is in untangling the skein of problems that led to those shootings on January 8th that we have most failed. The two most obvious issues raised by the shooting are the effectiveness of our gun control laws and our mental health services. But virtually nothing of consequence has been said about how to address those two topics since that tragic day.

On mental health issues, we are stuck trying to find a perfect balance between public safety and individual liberty. Following years of forced institutionalization in the early to mid-twentieth century we have abhorred the idea of forced commitment absent overwhelming evidence. As a result, people who need assistance and supervision, but will not seek it themselves, are left to their own devices.

On gun rights, the national conversation was stillborn. Attempts to reenact the Federal Assaults Weapons Ban, lapsed since 2004, have repeatedly proven fruitless. Representative Carolyn McCarthy’s (D-NY) less ambitious effort to limit the sale of clips with more than 10 rounds has been equally unsuccessful. Even legislation by Republican Congressman Peter King (NY) preventing citizens from bringing firearms within 1000 feet of government officials--enacted in direct response to the shooting of Representative Giffords--looks unlikely to pass.

None of these solutions are without valid complaints. They may not even represent the best way to move forward. But there must be a way forward. Of all the possible responses to the shootings in Tucson, the most troubling is the assertion by some guns rights supporters that, no matter what, people who truly wish to commit crimes will do so. In no other aspect of life do we accept such unabashed defeatism. Earthquakes, too, will happen, and that has not prevented us from strengthening building codes, developing early warning mechanisms, and attempting to protect ourselves in a thousand different ways. People who argue forcefully of the need for thirty-three round clips also need to provide forceful ideas and solutions as to how tragedies like what occurred in Tucson this can be avoided in the future.

To date, neither side of the aisle has forged a path forward. The President, so eloquent in his speech, has chosen not to speak out directly on these issues, presumably preferring to wait until we have a greater distance from the acts of that horrible day. We now have such a distance. Of course, that doesn’t mean that there are not people who will claim the tragedy is being used for political gain. But there will always be such people. The people of the United States understand that that not every attempt to address the cause of a tragedy is a politicization of that tragedy. Indeed, they understand that failing to even attempt to address the underlying causes of the shootings in Tucson would be a tragedy in of itself.