Another mass shooting, this time at an elementary school in a small Texas town. This is becoming all too frequent. Governor Abbott is partially right. We do need better mental health diagnosis and treatment. But that is just part of it. We also need better gun laws, so that mentally disturbed people don’t have easy access to deadly weapons. The majority of the public supports reasonable gun control, including background checks and limits on large-capacity guns and magazines.
But there is something more, something that all of us can do. In so many cases, including the latest, the shooter left multiple warnings on social media. Anyone who uses social media needs to pay attention and take threats seriously. Young people particularly need to take seriously messages that threaten violence or show a fascination with killing and cruelty to animals. If you receive a message that sounds like someone is threatening violence, call 911. Do not brush it off as a young person’s prank. It might be a prank, but it might be real. You have the power to keep a young student from losing his or her life.
