AFTER the mass shooting last Feb. 14, in which a deranged youth killed 14 students and three teachers in a Florida high school, there were the usual protest demonstrations calling for stricter gun control. The rallies spread around the country and continued up to late March.
But, as many expected, nothing came off the protest rallies. Gun rights advocates opposing any diminution of their right to bear arms, along with the powerful US weapons industry, are simply too entrenched in American society and government. There was talk by President Donald Trump for some measures like raising the age limit to 21 for those purchasing guns. There was also talk of arming school faculty members.
But the nation’s officials refused the call to ban the sale to civilians of military assault weapons capable of spewing out hundreds of bullets in seconds, like the popular AR-15. Congress would not touch the law in any way. Many predicted it would be only a matter of a few months before there would be another mass shooting.
This happened last Sunday, April 22. A man armed with an AR-15 fired at the seated customers in a restaurant in Nashville, Tennessee. He had already killed four, when one customer tackled him and succeeded in wresting the AR-15 away. He then fled the scene. He was identified as Travis Reinking who had been arrested in 2017 for being in a restricted area near the White House, carrying the same AR-15 he used last Sunday.
At a news conference the next day, the acting mayor of Nashville, David Briley, said: “Last night, innocent Nashvillians were terrorized by a man with an AR-15. Let’s be honest. Some people see these weapons as having a purpose of terrorizing other people. It’s happening too much. Enough is enough. We need comprehensive gun reform to address mass shootings, domestic shootings, accidental shootings, and homicides. If we can all come together for this and for the greater good, we can take these weapons of war off the streets of our country.”
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced later that Reinking has been added to the state’s Top Ten Most Wanted List. He was subsequently arrested. And there the matter rests. We and the rest of the world can only look on and wonder how the US appears incapable of acting on a problem than recurs again and again every few months.
