Opinion | Focusing on guns misses the mark

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When it comes to preventing school shootings, there is an automatic association connecting “action” with “gun laws.” A false dichotomy is presented: We either restrict guns or we do nothing. So when the Minneapolis mayor spoke in response to the Annunciation shooting, he focused on guns as the culprit. So have many other metropolitan mayors, the governor and those rallying at the State Capitol on Labor Day.

The ineffectiveness of this singular advocacy — as far as school safety is concerned — was revealed in a vision I had of this recent perpetrator. Did you watch the shooter’s video previewing the violence? If you did, you realized this person was going to create a nightmare however possible. If it wasn’t the military-style rifle and clips upon which she wrote slurs and calls for violence — targeting everyone from Indians to Black people to Trump — she would have homed in on her shotgun and pistol.

“We’re not talking about your father’s hunting rifle here,” stated the mayor in his speech, referring to firearms that would remain legal under the proposed ban.

OK. I pictured the perpetrator entering the church with her 12-gauge shotgun, commonly used in bird hunting. Immediately recognizing the devastation, the gun issue was suddenly pretty much irrelevant when compared to the obvious main factor in this case: The violently mentally ill person who did this. It also suddenly seemed crazy to overlook this.

But that’s what this automatic association has done. It’s hardened the resolve to take action that misses the mark of actually keeping children safer. I understand the temptation to target guns in the wake of these cases; how in a civilized society it seems out of place for people to have military style weapons. But I’m not sure a single life would have been any less affected in that church if current advocates would have had their way. This was about an individual completely psychologically lost and apparently lost to those who might have been able to help.

Our state and metro area have especially suffered this breakdown (and even exacerbated it), as seen with the episodes of social unrest the past five to 10 years as well as the response to COVID. Right below this newspaper’s top story on Sept. 3 about banning guns was a feature about an alarmingly high rate of Black boys being lured into violence by gangs. One was recruited at a Boys and Girls Club! Another boy mentioned in the story committed the 2022 shooting into a crowd in the heart of Uptown, killing a man.

There is no quick fix to this (though a Band-Aid of armed guards could help). In this time of fragmentation, it will be up to individual persons, families, communities and institutions to take it upon themselves to 1) stay safe and 2) connect with those within their circle of influence.

Similar to the church efforts highlighted in this paper (“Minnesota churches are sharing land with homeless people. They say it’s the Christian thing to do,” Sept. 5), assisting with housing for those who had been living on the streets, localized, smaller-scale efforts will best assist with rebuilding the bonds of community, family and individual healing needed to prevent those who might otherwise be the next perpetrator.

Whether it’s a community or an individual coming apart, the youth of Minneapolis and St. Paul are no less at risk with people more concerned about the weapons used than the societal breakdown motivating individuals and groups to act violently.