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Carolyn Banks| Special to the Advertiser

A gunman killed nine people last week at a rail yard in San Jose, Calif., before dying of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

There have been at least 200 mass shootings in the first 132 days of this year, Reuters reported, quoting data from the Gun Violence Archive. CNN, citing the same archive, said the San Jose shooting was the 232nd mass shootingthis year, with 17 recorded in a single week in May.

Meanwhile in Texas, lawmakers last week approved legislation that permits people to carry handguns without a permit and without instruction of any kind. Surprised? Dont be. In 2015, our legislature said that guns could be carried on college campuses.

And Texas isnt alone. When the governor signs the bill, Texas will join at least 20 other states that allow handguns to be carried without a permit.

I suggest that the United States add a new cabinet position Secretary of Slaughter. That person could keep tabs on the number of mass shootings as they occur and post the pertinent information online. Whether 15 or 200, we are in Guinness World Records territory here.

Think of the possibilities. There could be a mass shooting of the week that people could vote on. We could rank the murders that took place over a seven-day period and have people fill out cards putting them in some kind of order. Dont we already do this for baseball and football? Murder, obviously, is as big as anysport.

Remember baseball cards? We could have mass shooter cards. I can hear it now: Ill trade you a Dylann Roof for a Derek Chauvin.

Oh-oh. Scratch Derek Chauvin. Although his crime looms large, he was only convicted of one murder. Generally, the FBI defines mass murder as a number of murders (four or more) occurring during the same incident, with no distinctive time period between the murders. So, Derek Chauvin is three shy of the label.

If the murderer cools off, that is, takes some time between kills and moves to a new location, he or she is a spree killer, which is a subset. And, of course, a serial killer does it one at a time, possibly with long stretches between kills. To be designated a serial killer, a person has to have murdered at least three people.

But even so, mass murders are stealing the show. Just turn on your TV if you dont believe me.

When we think of mass murder, we think of guns, and yes, guns are the weapon of choice. There have been mass stabbings, but not so many in the U.S., largely because of the prevalence of guns here. In 2019, in a New York suburb, five people were stabbedand slashed with a machete in what was called the "Hanukkah stabbing. But all survived except for one who died three months later of his injuries. Knives even machetes are just not as effective at dealing death, especially in a crowd of people.

But there are other means. The West Fertilizer Company explosion in West, Texas, in 2013, could be categorized as an unsolved mass murder. Fifteen people died that day, more than 200 were injured and hundreds of homes and buildings were damaged or destroyed. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said the fire that caused the blast was intentionally set. The alleged arsonist, who could be considered a mass murderer, has yet to be found.

And dont forget Timothy McVeigh, whose Oklahoma bombing scored 168 dead. That was an explosion too. And just as in West, ammonium nitrate was the weapon.

Do I sound cavalier about these atrocities? Do I sound as though they dont affect me in the least? Let me tell you, its a pose. I am outraged by each and everyone. And I am saddened, too.

We cant ban fertilizer, the most available source of ammonium nitrate, but we can and should do something about the guns in our midst. I dont think this will happen in Texas, because our governor, Greg Abbott, lauds the recent no-permit carry, saying it is the strongest Second Amendment legislation in Texas history.

I propose that, if the new cabinet position is approved, Abbott fill the slot as Secretary of Slaughter. That would be fitting. According to what Abbott has said and done, our Second Amendment wins out over the Fifth Commandment. Remember it?It says, Thou shall not kill.

Banks is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. She lives in Bastrop and is the author of several novels. See her work atcarolynbanks.com.

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Commentary: Does the Second Amendment trump the Fifth Commandment? - Austin American-Statesman