Mass shooting in Tennessee is sadly similar to the one that devastated Sacramento | Opinion

I woke up on the morning of March 27, 2023, as if it was any normal day.

I got up to brush my teeth in the bathroom, waking up my dogs Pepper and Oreo, who had been cuddled up against me. I showered and put on my outfit for the day. And no day of mine starts without putting on a pot of water on the stove and making myself a warm cup of tea. That day I had Lapsang Souchong. While I waited for the tea to cool, I caught up on the news in Nashville, TN, where I was living.

Opinion

Arriving at work, it was still a normal day until the reports of a shooting at a private Christian institution called Covenant School. Mass shootings are not new to Nashville. There was a 2018 shooting where a white gunman went into a Waffle House occupied by predominantly Black and brown people and killed four. But something about this shooting was different.

A gunman, who had purchased weapons legally, went into the school and murdered three adults and three children. The suspected shooter was killed by police.

I remember the image of a bus full of kids leaving the school after the shooting. Their hands pressed up against the window and tears poured from their eyes. That sight and the collective anguish of knowing what these kids witnessed stunned the Nashville community.

Over time, the sad frequency of mass shootings has caused me to develop a routine after each one. I watch Star Wars: A New Hope. The story of Luke Skywalker finding his way and ultimately fighting the Empire, with the help of Old Ben Kenobi and Han Solo, became a helpful escape for me when tragedy struck.

It’s a better story than the one we’re seeing unfold around gun violence.

Coping with a tragedy

Normally the DNA of downtown Nashville is vibrant music blasted from Honky Tonks and partygoers screaming at the top of their lungs from party buses. In the weeks after the shooting, downtown became quiet and cold.

While sadness overtook the city, some leaders wanted change to come from this tragedy. A week after the shooting, Nashvillians went to the state capitol to urge Tennessee lawmakers to make legislation to prevent this from happening again. Just this week, thousands of people linked arms across Nashville to commemorate the anniversary of the Covenant School shooting.

To give you a picture of the gun-obsessed legislature, before the shooting a bill was set for a vote that would lower the age allowed to purchase a gun. The bill was removed from the list to be voted on after the shooting occurred.

But that shouldn’t be seen as a win, as the state has passed laws that allow Tennesseans to openly carry a gun without a permit regardless of whether it’s concealed or in full public view.

“You ban books, you ban drag, kids are still in body bags,” protesters shouted, linking arm to arm in the lobby outside the House Chamber.

Nothing resembling gun reform came from the General Assembly session.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, whose wife was close friends with one of the victims, called for a special session of the legislature after getting heat for his previous inaction on gun control legislation.

Before the session began, Lee had introduced an order of protection law that would allow courts and law enforcement to temporarily seize firearms if a judge determined that a suspect was at risk of harming himself or others.

The special session saw 4 bills passed but not Lee’s proposed bill. The four bills that were passed did not address gun control, either.

But the reality is that no matter if you’re in a gun-obsessed state like Tennessee or California, mass shootings still happen.

On April 3, 2022, six people were killed and wounded 12 during a mass shooting in downtown Sacramento. Three men are charged with murder in a case where prosecutors say 114 shell casings were recovered by police after the shooting.

But among the chaos, there is still hope.

I’ve met many mothers of victims of gun violence and I’ve noticed one similar quality in all of them: the will to fight. They were all compelled to do so by losing a child and honoring their memory by trying to save the next child and sparing the next family a feeling of loss visited upon too many victims of mass shootings. We should all use that drive as inspiration to be invested in writing a better story.

A better story

March 27, 2023, will be a day that I and thousands of Nashvillians will remember, just as April 3, 2022, will be remembered in Sacramento.

The anniversaries of these days cast a pall over the respective communities. Tennessee and California might be different in a lot of ways, but gun violence has sadly become a common denominator in America.

Each time a shooting happens, a new chapter of gun violence begins. It’s time to ask ourselves, do we want this story to end?

With commitment from politicians, officials and the community, we can write a story of mental health awareness, resources, and public safety reinforcement that will help protect us from mass shootings.

It’s time for a better story.