Can We Ever Use Data To Solve Mass Shootings?
A look, after the Chiefs parade becomes the latest.
The picture above is from Columbine High School’s shooting, which took place on April 20, 1999. Just judging from the ladies in the photo, I would assume most of them were juniors or seniors in high school. As someone who was a senior in HS in 1999, and am currently 41, I can tell you most of the women in this photo are probably between 39 and 41 right now. There’s a good chance several of them have children, possibly even multiple children, and some of those kids are probably about the same age as those who died in Uvalde last week. So, we’ve officially made all this stuff generational now — a mom who lived it in 1999 now has to worry about it for her baby girl in 2022, which means we’re at 23 years and no true solution.
Now I want you to pivot over to something like this:
Simply put, I guess, there’s data and there’s emotion, with a slice of ideology and perhaps religion, and on an issue like guns and what to do with guns and violence and schools, no one is going to be able to look at “data” and make the decision off of that alone. It’s too emotional and ideological for people. Some issues work on “data,” but many do not. Phrased another way, it’s a belief-driven world that we claim is a data-driven one. If you even look at the first paragraph of the pull quote above, you can find 50 out of any 100 people who will instantly try to dispute that or push back on it just based on another set of talking points. Data isn’t there? Data is there? Doesn’t matter either way. We’re defaulting to ideology and emotion regardless.
Now look at this:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to What Is Even Happening? to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.