School-age shooter stalks our students, again

The news of yet another school shooting has been splashed all over the media. Three dead, four wounded in a Washington state high school. One of the dead was the shooter himself, a 14-year-old boy. This took place at Marysville-Pilchuck High school in Marysville, a town about 30 to 40 miles from my adopted hometown of Kirkland. Still it is just too close to home for me. Way too close.

These shootings have become commonplace. So common that people just glance at the headlines and go on their merry little way. Saying to themselves; “oh, another school shooting. So sad.”

Is that really all? So sad? I’m not sad. I’m mad as hell. I’m angry at this senseless violence that happens again and again without hope, it seems, of ever finding a solution to stem this blood-soaked tide.

Yet somehow we must.

How can we as human beings allow this to continue? This will spark the circular debates yet again. I say circular because those involved battle back and forth in an endless loop, with no solutions or end in sight. We must get past the endless loop and hammer out ways to protect our most precious asset: our children.

This problem is uniquely American. With rare exceptions America leads the world in school shooting violence. No fooling, we do hold the No. 1 slot. It almost makes me ask the question: do we feel gun rights are more important than our children? No, that can’t be right. Can it?

Yet it might be the very question that needs to be asked. Which should come first, our national obsession with firearms or the lives of our children? I believe all the groups involved — from victims’ advocates, to gun control groups to gun rights groups and the National Rifle Association — need to seriously sit down together. That may be the hardest thing to do to curb the senseless violence plaguing our nation.

The NRA is key. Not the political arm of the NRA. That wing is clearly not interested in any talk or solution. It is out for power and intimidation.

No, I’m talking about the grassroots NRA, the real core of American families who make up its membership. After all, they have children in school, too. It is just they have had the wrong people speaking for them. The time has come for those hardworking people to stand up and speak for themselves. Then maybe we can tackle this vexing problem in ways that put in place real protective measures that keep our kids safe from harm without threatening our Second Amendment rights.

After all isn’t that what this is all about? Protecting our kids from the insanity of mass shootings in our schools? They deserve to go to school free of this violence, to learn and grow as kids should. Just take a look at those families who just joined a group with terrible membership fee. It is all over the media right now in cycle after cycle of 24-hour news coverage. Their pain, shock and grief is being plastered all over pages of newspapers, on TV screens, radio speakers and Internet devices.

I believe a solution, or a set of solutions, can be found to shut this plague down. It will not be easy by any stretch of the imagination. It has, in fact, proven to be very hard. But we will only solve this if all sides sit down and truly reason it out like adults. We have met other big challenges in our nation’s past such as putting men on the moon. I’m sure we can take on this huge challenge in the same spirit to make our schools safe.

This is America after all, land of the free home of the brave. A title I prefer over “America, world capital of mass school shootings.” How about you?

Wasilla resident Daniel D. Grota retired from the U.S. Army after more than 21 years of service.