Tragedy as political tool

Arizona Daily Wildcat

In just the most recent history, we have seen this time and time again: The death of Matt Shepard and the plea for hate-crime legislation. The slaying of a New York abortionist and the call for tougher restrictions on pro-life activists. The Oklahoma City bombing and the demand for legislation curbing militias.

No sooner had the smoke cleared in Columbine High School did the gun control activists take to the cameras and cry out for the legislation they are so sure could have prevented this tragedy.

It is disheartening that politicians seek to use this horrific crime to further their own agendas and score political points. Besides being the epitome of bad taste and insensitivity, these tactics instill in people an unwarranted fear.

One recent CNN poll shows that 68 percent of adults think that the likelihood of a similar shooting occurring at a school in their community is either "very" or "somewhat" likely. Fifty-five percent of the same people said that they fear for their children's safety at school.

What happened in Littleton is a tragedy of unmatched sorrow, and words do not exist that can ease the pain that community now feels. But for special interests to try to take advantage of this horror by claiming it to be to the level of an "epidemic" is nothing short of sickening.

While our nation must come together and cope with what happened within the walls of that high school, we must not allow our leaders to feed us intellectually dishonest claims and give the impression that this could ever be commonplace in our schools.

While many American public schools are failing miserably in their responsibility to educate, most are safe. After the 1998 schoolyard shooting in Jonesboro, Ark., President Clinton ordered the Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) to conduct a survey on the safety of our schools.

Edith McCarthur, one of the authors of the NCES reports, told the New York Times, "I'm a parent, too, and you get even one of these horrible shootings and it's scary. But it's such a rare event that they didn't show up in our study, and as a statistician, I'd have to say that there's no data showing an increase."

A 1998 Justice Policy Institute report concluded that "Despite the recent shocking school shootings throughout the country, America's public schools remain very safe. The likelihood of becoming a victim of a school-associated violent death is slightly less than one in a million."

In a perfect world, those odds are none in a million. And how I wish it were.

Second, these public relations ploys give Americans a false comfort that legislation could have prevented such a catastrophe.

Exhibiting shameful disrespect, the president and others now seek to promote their partisan agendas. And as he is reviving his gun control proposals (some of which should be implemented) let us not be fooled for a moment to think that such could have changed the course of events on that sad day.

For example, one of President Clinton's proposals forbids the possession of firearms by minors. The political climate of the day leads this to sound good in theory, but in reality would be worth little more than the congressional paper it would be printed upon.

Professor Joseph Sheley of Tulane University, says that such calls for more juvenile gun laws are "more symbolic than practical."

How egotistical are our leaders to believe that their electronic vote or executive signature would have been enough to stop those disturbed and determined young men?

Federal law currently prohibits possession of any firearm within 1,000 feet of school property. Shouldn't that have prevented these crimes?

The law means something only to those who obey it, and nothing to those committed to breaking it. There are more than 40,000 federal, state and local gun laws. Americans must realize that these are not problems about guns, reforms or restrictions, but rather about people.

But that debate shall be for another day. Now is not the time. Now is not the time to seek selfish gain. Now is not the time to use a terrible situation to score points against the opposition. And now is not the time to exploit those who are suffering in ways most could never imagine.

Now is certainly not the time.

Rather now is the time to mourn. It is the time to remember the bright sparks within those young minds that have been forever darkened. It is the time to give support to the students who will never again enter that schoolhouse without being haunted by the horror their innocent eyes were forced to witness. It is the time to pray for the families whose lives have been changed forever.