Another day, another school shooting, this time in Nashville.
Cue that lame "thoughts and prayers" plea, the most hypocritical cliche in America.
It's routinely invoked after every mass shooting, especially when schoolchildren are the targets.
So far this year there have been 130 mass shootings nationwide. The attack at the Covenant School in Nashville, a private Christian elementary school, was the 33rd school shooting so far this year. It claimed the lives of a custodian, a substitute teacher and the principal.
And three children. All of them 9 years old.
John Drake, chief of the Metro Nashville Police Department, said the shooter, heavily armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun, killed the children and the adults on the school's second floor before being killed by police.
And according to The Hartmann Report, an online commentary and podcast, America is "the only country in the world where the leading cause of death for children" is the abundance of school shootings.
The New York Times reported Monday that while Chief Drake said it was too early to discuss a possible motive for the school shooting, "he confirmed that the attack was targeted." Officials noted that the shooter had "left behind writings and detailed maps of the school and its security protocols."
Judging by past shootings at schools, stores and other venues, the writings of the shooter, who was a former student at the school, will likely show that the motive was simply a murderous intention to kill as many children and adults as possible. Like previous presidents, Joe Biden said the shooting was "a family's worst nightmare," and called on Congress to enact gun control legislation, according to The Times.
It is not cynical to suggest that no such legislation will emerge from Congress. No surprise, then, that Biden could only urge Congress to "pass my assault weapons ban. It's about time that we begin to make some progress."
While Tennessee has in the past prohibited possession of a firearm "with the intent to go armed," that caveat has long since been replaced with legislative acts that have drastically loosened or cancelled restrictions on who can legally carry guns in public. Thus the armed citizens at convenience stores, restaurants and nearly everywhere else. Some areas are supposedly off-limits, including government buildings and schools.
Until they aren't, as we saw on Monday morning.
According to Moms Demand Action, the state Senate Judiciary Committee last week passed legislation that "lowers the age for permitless, concealed or open carry of loaded handguns in public."
It argued that "research shows that 18- to 20-year-olds commit gun homicides at triple the rate of adults 21 years and older."
And it added: "Guns are the leading cause of death among children and teens in Tennessee. [Our state] has experienced a dramatic increase in the rate of gun deaths in recent years, increasing by 52% between 2012 and 2021."
There's a cynical argument that in political debates there are "lies, damn lies, and statistics."
Properly authenticated, however, statistics provide irrefutable evidence about, among other issues, the ominous increase in violent deaths at schools that historically have been a refuge from society's worst dangers.
No more. Ever since the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., in December 2012, schools are now as susceptible to gun violence as clubs, concerts, stores, even churches. Consider information cited in Monday's Hartmann Report:
"America has just a bit more than 4% of the world's population, but, with more guns than people [over 400 million weapons] in our country, we have more than 40% of all the civilian guns in the world."
Worse, a study by The American Journal of Medicine of gun deaths in the 23 wealthiest countries found that "U.S. homicide rates were seven times higher than in other high-income countries, driven by a gun homicide rate that was 25.2 times higher."
Gives new meaning to the "We're number one!" chants heard at countless political events, doesn't it?
In lower-income countries, children die by the thousands from inadequate food, water and medical care. As Hartmann notes, "Only America has a crisis of slaughtered children."
Michael Loftin is the former editorial page editor of the Chattanooga Times.