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Bill Cotterell| Capital Curmudgeon

Uvalde mass shooting: US mourns after 19 children, two teachers killed

Families and the country are left to grapple with grief after a shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 19 children and two teachers dead.

Scott L. Hall, Jessica Boller and Anastasiia Riddle, USA TODAY

Walking along a busy San Francisco thoroughfare on the day I got out of the Marine Corps, I was amused to see so many guns for sale in shop windows.

Id awakened that day in a barracks full of trained, disciplined Marines who knew what they were doing. We kept our rifles in a locked rack and, when we had a good reason to fetch them, the Officer of the Day would watch us sign the weapon in and out. There wasnt a round of ammunition anywhere nearby.

Yet there I was, on a downtown street with my mustering-out pay in my pocket and all kinds of guns available to anyone.

It seemed strange, in my youthful naivet, that well-trained military members zealously guarded their weapons while civilians put more regulations on dogs than instruments which, in the wrong hands, are deadly. But back then, I probably hadnt heard much about the Second Amendment or its political potency.

Covering politics and government in several states for 50-plus years, I heard all the legal arguments and the cheap bumper-sticker slogans usually in stories of unimaginable tragedy. And now, we hear it again; this time, its 19 little kids and two adults at an elementary school in west Texas.

When in Gods name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby? President Biden asked. When in Gods name do we do what needs to be done?

Probably not this time. Even if Biden was popular and had solid support in Congress, guns are politically untouchable.

As if by script, the shock and horror will dissipate and both sides of the never-ending gun debate will hurl Facebook memes and slogans back and forth for a while. Neither side will even admit that the other has a point.

That Second Amendment the Republicans hold so dear really does refer to a well-regulated militia. But our Supreme Court is likely to skip ahead to the part about the right of the people to keep and bear arms. And gun-control opponents correctly argue that criminals wont obey any law thats why we call them criminals and you cant deter illogical people with logical laws.

But shouldnt we try? Drunk drivers and heroin dealers dont obey laws either, but we try to stop them.

Must we live this way? Is burying 10 innocent people in Buffalo one week, and 21 in Texas the next, just a price we pay so some people can get rifles like Rambo uses?

As a journalist, I wont yield an inch on the First Amendment. But its tempered by laws against plagiarism, libel and slander. And we register our companies so you can find out who owns the presses and what they publish.

In various towns, Ive registered my house, my car, my marriage, the birth of my son, and my dog. The government hasnt confiscated them, so why shouldnt guns be registered?

But thats more impractical than ever in the current political climate.

More from Bill Cotterell:

On the day Nikolas Cruz murdered 17 people and wounded 17 others in Parkland, my wife and I landed in Australia on vacation. The Sydney TV nets were full of commentators saying it was all so simple just forbid private gun ownership and collect all the guns. Problem solved!

I was tempted to phone the TV station and ask if they had any idea how impractical no, impossible that is.

And sure enough, then-Gov. Rick Scott and the Legislature responded to Parkland with a few tepid measures, which promptly got tied up in court.

Biden is right about one thing: Other countries dont have this slaughter. If our leaders werent afraid of the gun lobby, maybe they could find out what those countries do and, even if it takes a constitutional amendment or two, go for it.

More likely, our leaders will issue statements about how our society is too violent, how families need to instill in our youth the values of responsibility and respect that we grew up with a generation ago. Then they can keep those statements handy for the next time it happens and the time after that, and the time after that.

Bill Cotterell is a retired Tallahassee Democrat capitol reporter who writes a twice-weekly column. He can be reached at bcotterell@tallahassee.com

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Do we really have to live with mass shootings? | Bill Cotterell - Tallahassee Democrat