More dead kids? America yawns as more bodies are added to a lengthy list of school shooting victims, this time in Minneapolis
This time, it occurred at Annunciation Catholic School during a morning Mass on the south side of Minneapolis on Wednesday, Aug. 27. Two children, one 8, the other 10, were killed. Twenty-one other people, including 18 kids, were injured. The shooter, whose name should not be mentioned, took his own life.
It’s a regular occurrence in America. Kids are targets, and we seem to accept it without much consideration on how to prevent it from occurring again. The K-12 School Shooting Database — and the mere fact that it exists should alarm us — reports the Minneapolis murders were the 146th gun-related event in an American school this year.
That includes 91 incidents where a gun was fired, either frightening or intimidating people, or wounding or killing someone. That’s from Everytown for Gun Safety.
There have been eight shootings that caused a death or injury, according to Education Week, which has been forced to add school shootings to its regular reporting schedule.
Education Week reports there have been 229 school shootings with injuries or deaths since 2018, including 24 in both 2018 and 2019, 10 in 2020, 35 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 38 in 2023, and 39 in 2024.
Of course, that was the total a few days before you read this. There’s an excellent chance it has increased between writing and publication.
So much horrific violence and loss. And once again, a school was targeted.
“Minnesota is heartbroken by the senseless shooting that took place this morning,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said. “I’m praying for our kids and teachers whose first week of school was marred by this horrific act of violence.”
It seems like this tidal wave of blood and death will never be stemmed. Instead, it only grows worse as more children are slaughtered. What’s being done to try to stop such violence?
Not much. We are the most heavily armed nation on earth, with more than 400 million guns in the country now. More than 47,000 people were shot dead in 2023, and the toll will continue for many years to come.
We have become numb to the murder of our children, bored by the repeated accounts of horror in classrooms or churches. It’s a grim part of life in America today and one accepted with little thought.
Oh, well, more dead kids. Does America have the will to stop this madness? Or will gun lobbyists keep buying votes in Congress to prevent significant gun-control laws, which the overwhelming majority of Americans support, from being enacted into law?
Pope Leo XIV, in a Sunday, Aug. 30, blessing, called for action.
“Our prayers for the victims of the tragic shooting during a school Mass in the American state of Minnesota,” said Leo, who was born in Chicago, where gun murders are everyday occurrences. “We hold in our prayers the countless children killed and injured every day around the world. Let us plead God to stop the pandemic of arms, large and small, which infects our world.”
Maybe God can help, because our so-called leaders don’t seem to care. They offer thoughts and prayers, issue a standard press release, and move on.
This time, their names were Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, forever 10. They join a long, sad list of innocent, defenseless children murdered in our schools.
What names will be added, when and where? It’s just a question of time, and not that long of a wait, either.
Because we don’t care to prevent this. It’s part of American life and death now.
Fourth-generation South Dakotan Tom Lawrence has written for several newspapers and websites in South Dakota and other states and contributed to The New York Times, NPR, The London Telegraph, The Daily Beast and other media outlets. Republish with permission.
Photo: Memorial at a 2006 school shooting in Minnesota, public domain, wikimedia commons
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