What will happen after the carnage in Uvalde, Texas? Absolutely nothing

Once again, the unthinkable has slapped America smack in the face.

Ten days ago, it was the massacre of African Americans in Buffalo, N.Y., people shopping for their groceries on a Saturday afternoon.

On Tuesday, it was the slaughter of two teachers and at least 19 elementary school children in Uvalde, Texas, mere babies preparing for a future they will never have.

Yet another mass shooting in America. Yet another day when lives have been senselessly ended or forever changed.

Yet another chance to do … absolutely nothing to try to at least lower the future body count.

First, come 'thoughts and prayers'

Apparently, we have a Second Amendment right to turn our backs on America’s future victims.

Are you angry yet?

You should be because you’ve seen this horror show before. Too damn many times before.

Another view: Rep. Gallego will wear those crass tweets about Texas shooting

You know how it plays out.

Today, it’s thoughts and prayers. The pious politicians who are the quickest to do nothing are usually the first beat their breasts in a public showing of their grief.

People like Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who, by the way, is scheduled to speak at the National Rifle Association’s annual meeting in Houston on Friday.

“Heidi & I are fervently lifting up in prayer the children and families in the horrific shooting in Uvalde,” Cruz tweeted on Tuesday.

Next comes the cry that prayers aren't enough

Next comes the cry that thoughts are prayers are not nearly enough, that at some point this country has to come to grips with the buckets upon buckets of blood on our hands, spilled because our politicians are simply too gutless to at least try to do something to slow the flow.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., took to the Senate floor on Tuesday to vent his rage.

“What are we doing?” he asked his colleagues. “Why do you spend all this time running for the United States Senate? Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority, if your answer is that as this slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing? What are we doing?”

You’ll have to excuse Murphy’s passion. He represents a state that knows a thing or two about the wholesale slaughter of little children. Maybe you remember a school called Sandy Hook, where 20 6- and 7- year olds and six educators were killed.

In the nearly 10 years since that dark day, let me count the ways in which those who lead us have boldly taken on the gun lobby and passed reforms aimed at combatting our national epidemic of gun violence.

Well, that was easy. The count is ZERO. But I'm getting ahead of myself in the script.

Then we say it's too soon to politicize this tragedy

As night follows day, next comes the horrified reply to outbursts like Murphys – that it’s too soon to politicize this tragedy that hit deep in the wounded heart of Texas.

And finally, we will once again settle the vexing question of when the appropriate time is that America should at long last confront these massacres in our schools and in our shopping centers and in our grocery stores. In our movie theaters and outdoor spaces and indoor spaces. And in our places of worship.

Never, the answer will be.

We didn’t do anything a decade ago when a classroom full of first graders was executed in Sandy Hook. We didn’t do anything when a movie theater full of Batman fans or a nightclub full of party goers were gunned down.

We didn’t do anything when country music fans in Las Vegas became sitting ducks for a madman armed with what amounted to a machine gun or when 17 people were killed at a high school in Florida.

Nothing.

No matter how many die, we still do nothing

No requirements to strengthen background checks. No initiatives to try to better identify those with mental issues who should never be allowed access to guns.

No push to require the safe storage of weapons or regulate the sale of extended magazines to at least try to cut down on the carnage.

Do me a favor and laugh in the face of the next politician who claims to be pro life.

We don’t yet know what drove the shooter – an 18-year-old high school student who authorities say bought two rifles legally just days earlier, on his 18th birthday – to walk into an elementary school and start executing children. But really, does it matter?

Here’s what we do know after Columbine. After Virginia Tech and Parkland and Sandy Hook. And now Uvalde.

No amount of horror at Robb Elementary School, no number of dead children stacked up like cordwood is going to change a darned thing in this country.

That’s on us, because we continue to elect do-nothing politicians who publicly mourn and then quickly move on.

Same old thoughts. Same old prayers. Same old politics

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: After Uvalde, here's what will change: Absolutely nothing