Friday, December 14, 2012

Why?

Twenty years ago I learned of my first school shooting. I was a new reporter and too green to get the assignment that would detail Simon's Rock College student Wayne Lo's killing spree.
I remember the T-shirt he wore at his arraignment that said "Sick of  It All." And I remember the description of one of the victims that survived, Teresa Beavers.
Teresa was shot twice in the stomach while on post in the security shack, her blood spilling onto the floor as she sputtered the barely audible name of her would-be killer.
I was asked to call Teresa 7 years after she was nearly shot to death for a comment on another school shooting: Columbine.
My assignment then was to uncover perspective to write a reaction piece by speaking to those who understood the violence unfolding far across the country because they lived it.
But words fall short when you try to capture unspeakable terror.
My story ran and we all moved on.
When I learned of the Virginia Tech shooting 8 years later in 2007,  I was one day into my new job as a communications consultant.
No longer a reporter, I felt relieved I did not have to go looking for Teresa or others to get the perspective and ask her thoughts on another senseless mass shooting with automatic weapons.
But tonight Teresa is on my mind again as I hug my children and breathe in the smell of their hair.
What must survivors of these earlier shootings think as news trickles in about the beautiful children, babies, really, slaughtered alongside of the adults who protected them?
What must they think as they watch the faces of the next round of grieving parents knowing we've done nothing as a country to curb this violence in over two decades?
The Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting is a national tragedy, a repetitive crime that highlights the most innocent among us are not removed from the sights of assault weapons.
Some say it's not the time to talk about gun laws, mental health, or politics.
I agree.
We're twenty years too late.
So when does it stop?
How many more shootings does it take to take "meaningful action?"
We all should want to know.


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