What Ifs

So the Florida school shooting is unfolding a little more each day.  Now we know that there were a lot of failures that led up to this.  The FBI was warned and did nothing.  Heck, that information didn't even make it to the local field office.  The local police had visited his home multiple times for complaints about his behavior. The threat from this young man was openly known to say the least.

Now we find out the armed school resource officer didn't go into the building when shot rang out.  We also know that there were other deputies arrived and didn't go into the building.  These deputies failed in their duties.  The core tenet of their job is to serve and protect, and they didn't get 50% of that statement done.  Could they have made a difference?  Could they have saved lives if they went in at the first sound of gunfire?  Maybe, maybe not.  We will never know.  What I will say is that I can't judge these men.  I've never been shot at.  I'll defer to those who have to make that judgement.

Back to the point of this post.  Nothing that I've said above made a difference.  It's all just finger pointing and fake outrage.  "If these people would have done their job then none of this would have happened." All of those dead kids and teachers won't come back because of "could of, should have, would have". 

This is the way we choose to deal with things.  We place blame.  We blame the gun.  We blame the shooter.  We blame the systems that failed.  Unfortunately none of this gets us any closer to a solution to keep these tragedies from happening again.  It's no wonder we lose interest in these things after such a small amount of time.  All we get is confusing information about what could have been, not what it is.

So now what?  Do we provide better training for law enforcement?  Do we arm teachers?  Do we ban scary looking guns?  Do we fund better mental health and tie that back into background checks for gun purchases?

I don't know the answers to that.  What I do know is that, at some point, things will change.  For better or for worse.  And we had better get off our collective asses and get involved in the conversation.

If we don't, then we, and our values, will surely be left behind.