HOW MANY MORE?

How many more have to die from gun violence? Virginia Beach, El Paso, Dayton, and now Odessa, Texas—the bodies pile up.

In Virginia, the legislature will not discuss ways to curb the bloodshed. Governor Northam convened the legislature following the Virginia Beach rampage, but the session lasted an hour and a half, thanks to the shenanigans of politicians like Margaret Ransone and Ryan McDougle.

Virginia is ripe for another mass shooting, but Ransone and McDougle packed up and left Richmond without a peep. A fitting tribute to the memory of those gunned down on May 31^st would have been a dialog about how to prevent this bloodshed.

When parents are forced to buy bulletproof backpacks for their children; when innocent people are mowed down in theaters, shopping malls, concerts or any place of public gathering, we have a crisis.

The statistics from Michael Bloomberg’s everytownresearch.org., (updated on April 4, 2019) are shocking. Every day, guns kill an average of 100 Americans; the average gun deaths per year are 36,383, the average number of injuries in this country from guns, per year, is 100,120.

Access to guns increases the risk of death by suicide three times. The U.S. gun homicide rate is 25 times greater than other high-income countries.

Firearms are the second leading cause of death for American children and teens—only exceeded by motor vehicle accidents.

Guns play a huge role in domestic abuse. Every month, on average, domestic partners gun down 52 women; nearly one million women alive today have been shot by a domestic partner; and access to a gun makes it five times more likely a women will be killed.

VIRGINIA BEACH: IS THE FIX IN?

May 31, 2019 was Virginia’s third mass shooting—12 dead and five wounded at Virginia Beach. The first two massacres were the Appalachian School of Law in Grundy, Virginia on January 16, 2002—three dead, three wounded, and Virginia Tech April 16, 2007—32 dead and at least 17 injured. The aftermath of both those rampages was marred by duplicity and attempted cover-ups. Incompetent people were never held accountable.  

In the case of Virginia Tech, the Governor’s Review Panel Report contains numerous errors and misleading verbiage, all of which is designed to protect against lawsuits. A member of the Virginia Tech review panel later said they were under pressure from the outset to produce a report that would not lead to litigation.

At Grundy, no one asked the school President to explain his rejection of requests for increased school security. At a meeting just weeks before the rampage he brushed aside female faculty members concerns for classroom safety saying, “You women and your hormones and your intuition … there is nothing to be afraid of … it will be ok.”  

Virginia Beach hired Hilliard Heintze to write an independent review of the tragedy, agreeing to pay the firm nearly $500,000—including expenses. The use if the word “review” rather than “analysis” is troubling.

There is a reason why after a crime, in law enforcement the investigation is called a “crime scene analysis.” An analysis delves deeply into motivation, actions, misconduct, as well as people and policies contributing to the crime. A review is just that, a review of what happened without plumbing all the evidence for what led to the crime.             

An “analysis” is a critical investigation, a “review” is not.

Hilliard Heintze is accepting money for its services; legally, its obligation is to the city—referred to as its fiduciary duty.

The city may well be buying and paying for the report it wants—a document that will exonerate. 

Hilliard Heintze’s Scope of Services makes no mention of crime scene analysis. It lists as its core services: violence prevention, threat assessments, and awareness and response training. That is fine going forward, but nowhere does the company include analyzing crimes—particularly mass shootings.  

The company proposed, and the city accepted, to a twelve-week schedule to do the review and produce the report. That schedule is fine for violence prevention, but woefully short for crime scene analysis.

The Virginia Tech analysis took over two years. Analyzing the May 31^st carnage could easily take that long.

The chances are slim Hilliard Heintze will bite the hand that feeds it and produce a report holding the city or any of its employees accountable. 

Initially, Hilliard Heintze’s indicated it would deliver two reports: one confidential and a second for the public consumption. In a press conference on July 23, the company president asserted there would be only one report and he would determine the content. 

The warning signs are already apparent—the fix may be in.

             

DELEGATE RANSONE'S UNCONSCIONABLE REACTION TO THE VIRGINIA BEACH SHOOTING

Here is my letter to the editor in reaction to Delegate Margaret Ransone's (Virginia legislature) comments on the governor calling the legislature into session following the Virginia Beach rampage. 

Editor:

Delegate Margaret Ransone’s response to Governor Northam’s calling the state legislature into session following the Virginia Beach tragedy goes beyond jaw dropping—it is disturbing. Indeed, Ransone may have gone off the rails—she typed part of it in all caps, the signal a person is screaming.

Ransone finds the timing “disgusting.” More hysteria? What we need is calm, clear deliberation—not yelling.

           
Ransone doesn’t have her facts straight. After almost all mass shootings, political leaders follow one of two courses of action, either call the legislature into session or appoint a blue-ribbon panel to investigate. Northam chose the latter.

           

Following shootings, politicians of Ransone’s ilk say, “Now is not the time to talk about the killings.” Ok, when is the time to discuss mass killings?

Furthermore, Ransone’s response is a profound lie of omission. She doesn’t mention her party killed eight bills in committee that would have helped stem gun violence and simultaneously protect the Second Amendment. One, SB 1748, would have prohibited a person from importing, selling, bartering, or transferring a firearm magazine holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition. The killer at Virginia Beach used magazines holding 30 rounds.

I know from personal experience that Delegate Ransone is duplicitous when it comes to gun violence. I, along with others, met with her four years ago. I talked with her about the loss our family had suffered at a school shooting in Virginia and gave her copies of my books on that shooting and the Virginia Tech massacre.

In front of witnesses she asked if I would be willing to meet with members of the Virginia legislature to discuss ways to curb gun violence. My answer was, “yes.”

I am still waiting for Ransone to call.

THE PLEASURE OF HATING

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            Hate, ridicule, sarcasm, jealousy, belittling humor, and bullying are despicable, centuries-old characteristics of human behavior.  Hate is the fountain from which the others flow; hate seems to be an indelible part of our nature. The Germans even have a word for wallowing in hate and enjoying the misfortunes of others—schadenfreude.

            In 1826 American writer William Hazlitt wrote The Pleasure of Hating. He asserts:

            “The pleasure of hating, like a poisonous mineral, eats into the heart of religion, and turns it to rankling spleen and bigotry; it makes patriotism an excuse for carrying fire, pestilence, and famine into other lands: it leaves to virtue nothing but the spirit of censoriousness, and a narrow, jealous, inquisitorial watchfulness over the actions and motives of others.”

            Hazlitt’s words struck me deeply following the death of a close friend’s daughter. In high school, that daughter was subjected to intense ridicule because of her appearance and because she was Jewish. Her classmates teased her, mocked her and gave her a name—The Frog.

            It stuck.

            A couple of years before her recent death at age 69, she asked her only grandchild to call her Nana Frog. A talented and tormented woman, she fought many demons and never recovered from the bullying and ridicule she endured.

            Her family gave me a copy of her poetry. In it I found:

LIFE AS A FROG

Sometimes I dream

Of being a frog –

A Jewish frog in search

Of kosher bugs.

Other frogs

Wouldn’t call me names

Or tell me that

I killed their god.

Even if I was

A different shade of green

I would be

Another frog.

            Rest in peace Nana frog. Frogs are beautiful; they are one of god’s wondrous creatures.