It’s still early in the investigation of America’s latest mass shooting, the carnage that struck the Highland Park Fourth of July parade. While a suspect (Robert “Bobby” Crime, 22 and an apparent Trump fan) is in custody, there’s still so much we don’t know, namely the how and why: things like how the murder weapon was acquired, whether the shooter has a criminal or mental health record, what the motive was.
We still don’t know any of that, not that the lack of such answers, mind you, kept politicians on both sides of the gun-control war from immediately reasserting hard-line positions.
It’s not too early to say this: After Uvalde and Buffalo and a score of other mass shootings, after another summer of Chicago violence, enough. I’m sick and tired of being scared in my own neighborhood and my own city. So, I suspect, are you.
We need to get a handle on this. And that means everybody on both sides of the argument–those who say having strong police is the answer and those who insist that having complete freedom to buy any firearm any time is the answer–has to give a little.
We need effective, respected and professional police and prosecutors who will do their job instead of looking for excuses to let criminals out. We also need tough laws and tough enforcement to keep guns out of the hands of those criminals. And we need adequate mental health treatment as well as safeguards to protect us from those who have not been helped.
What we know at this point is that the Highland Park shooting appears to follow a sad pattern that has become almost a media cliché in recent decades. We don’t have all the details yet, but it appears the shooter is a distressed young man, probably angry with the world because he’s angry with himself. And that distressed young man somehow got ahold of what police say was at least one “high-powered rifle.”
Reaction from the political class has been mixed.
I thought Gov. J.B. Pritzker struck the right tone. “There are no words for the kind of monster who lies in wait and fires into a crowd of families with children celebrating a holiday with their community,” he said in a statement. “But grief will not bring the victims back, and prayers alone will not put a stop to the terror of rampant gun violence in our country. I will stand firm with Illinoisans and Americans: we must–and we will–end this plague of gun violence.”
GOP gubernatorial nominee Darren Bailey was in full law-and-order mode (literally) in tweeting that the Illinois Legislature needs to convene in a special session “to address crime on streets.”
“We need to demand law and order and prosecute criminals,” Bailey tweeted. “We need more police on our streets to keep our families safe.”
Bailey has a point–to an extent.
Social media over the weekend was filled with a story about a Loop convenience store that was pillaged for the third time in a week of liquor, cigarettes and other necessities of life by young hooligans, and with stories about Chicago police being attacked with fireworks and more when they tried to break up a street drag race. Where is, for instance, State’s Attorney Kim Foxx condemning such activity, and vowing to prosecute anyone who participated to the full extent of the law? Don’t hold your breath.
Still, Mr. Bailey, even if it was for his primary campaign, has lots of explaining to do about another tweet from April 2022 advertising a fundraising gun raffle, open to all and including a rifle with a 30-bullet magazine. “We wouldn’t do that today,” says an aide. Not good enough.
Where’s the call for steps to keep easily acquired assault weapons out of the crowded streets of Chicago, Mr. Bailey? Where’s the recognition that, while “gun rights” may mean one thing in Xenia, they lead to mayhem in Chicago as surely as night follows day? Where’s the admission that the Highland Park parade was filled with plenty of cops, yet the shooter struck anyhow?
Another emotional reaction came from U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Downers Grove, in a separate tweet.
“Not again,” he wrote after the Highland Park news hit. “I am so sick of a U.S. Senate that keeps watching people get shot and keeps concluding that the thing we need to protect more than anything else at this moment is the filibuster. Half-assed platitudes in lieu of action are killing people.”
Sorry, congressman, but much as I agree that the gun lobby is selfish, the desire to defend one’s self is pretty innate. Democrats have to separate the hardcore from the reasonable ones. Abolishing the filibuster will work just fine. Until, that is, Republicans get majority control of Congress and not only undo everything the Democrats did but make things worse.
Still, be it Pritzker, Bailey, Casten or the faces of terrified people running for safety at what was supposed to have been a celebration of national pride, they do all share one sentiment: No more. End it. Do something.
America, we have a problem. You know it. Your neighbor to the left knows it and so does your neighbor to the right. The politicians know it.
Now, what are we going to do about it—together?
