Again. The Madness comes to Minneapolis.

The Onion nailed it sometime ago. We will continue to hear politicians and the NRA bullshit about “what to do about this?” Ad nauseam. And no, this is not a two-sided argument: Democrats have repeatedly submitted commonsense gun legislation and the Republicans have repeatedly stonewalled or shot it down.

This is not going to be a post written in measured tones. No deep analysis of facts, arguments or figures. We’re way past that. I should be writing in all caps. This, and every article that has anything to do with shootings, gun control, lives lost because of the one and lack of the other, should all be posted in ALL CAPS, like so many primal screams.

No, what follows is going to be declarative and judgmental- often harsh - about this country and our society as it is.

We are not a particularly smart, or brave, much less, free country. We are not brave, if we feel a need to own guns too. We are not smart: we can’t even pass decent legislation, even if or rather, particularly when it means voting against the gun lobby and its enablers in government. We sure as hell aren’t free and these days, much less so than at any other time in our history.

I don’t want to hear all the nonsense about “well, if we outlawed guns, only criminals would have guns.” Jesus. We are the only country, the ONLY country with this illness. 

We’re also a nation of hypocrites or at least one that has allowed hypocrites to occupy leadership positions in government, if not outright voting for them. “Won’t someone think about the children?” Everybody does and everybody wants this madness stopped. I’m not going to lay out any detailed arguments. Below, I’ll have links to data, to legislation, and so on. But frankly, having to write about another mass shooting of kids is dispiriting and frankly, depressing because of what it says about this country and us as a people. 

Here’s the thing of all things: the effect of one child dying, just under normal circumstances - say for instance, illness or accident - is an unspeakable tragedy. It leaves the parents and siblings with a void where a lovable addition to a family should be. There is a hole where there should be a life. From there, the ripples of sadness eddy outward to close friends and other family members, and across the social web that the child would have been part of. While that hole will never be filled for the parents and siblings, eventually, life will move on for others and they will continue to support the family as we do when those we care for meet with tragedy. That said, that social web will continue to remain sturdy and no doubt provide support for the parents and the family. 

The point is that where illness or accident is concerned, we can recognize that these are “natural” occurrences outside the ability of individuals or a collective society to prevent. Where accidents are concerned, very often, legislation is passed to prevent the conditions that lead up to the fatality. For instance, seat belts and warnings on carcinogenic contents in products like cigarettes. 

But there’s a drastic difference when a child is shot to death. That hole in the family is going to be cavernous as that tragedy ripples out like a goddamned tsunami through the hearts and fabric of that family, their loved ones, and the social web that should be a safe haven and support. In the case of the Minneapolis shooting, though, it was two children murdered and seventeen wounded in a Catholic School, a major component of a social web if there ever were one. The ripples are crimson waves across a timeline that will stretch our for the foreseen future, continuing to echo fear, anger, and anxiety long after the fact. And then, there will be another mass shooting. Another school or a mall or a church or a concert venue or wherever a wreck of a human being who has a gun can be found. 

We know that people who shoot up strangers are disturbed. We know that they are unwell. We also know that that’s part of the process that would also help mitigate our mass shooting epidemic, And yes, it is an epidemic. Again, we’re the only fucking country with this problem (doesn’t happen in Russia, even). It’s not an “issue”; it’s a fucking, horrible problem. The solution is where it always has been: sensible gun legislation. Background checks; if the purchaser has a felony record or a record of emotional or mental instability, just don’t sell firearms to this person. Don’t be like Texas(1): if people own guns, don’t let them carry them, don’t let them bring them into public spaces. Just don’t, and for a god I don’t believe in’s sake, don’t let people carry without a permit on them. 

Already, I can hear Texans going on about the “good guy with the gun”; the point is to have no guys with a gun, except law enforcement. (Actually, I can hear a thousand assholes outside of Texas using that lame line. Do me a favor and fuck off.)

I get salty about this because all these deaths have been preventable. I get salty about all this because I don’t want to think less of this country than I already do; but then, we’ve allowed the Republic to slide into a dictatorship which is not a separate issue. The assholes who support the Regime are the very same ones who shoot down anything like responsible gun laws. They don’t care who dies, they don’t give a shit about “the children” (because kids are only sentimental signifiers to use when necessary, like now; you know, “thoughts and prayers” — and surely, you must know they do not give a shit about your children); and they don’t have the moral fiber to do what’s right to stop this madness. 

So yeah, I’m salty. I’m angry, and I’m done with any propriety when it comes to this matter. Actually, I’ve been done with it, but every time it happens, I default to salty. 

I’ve kept this short because I want whoever is reading this to read and review the materials posted herein. There’s not a lot, but between the graphics and the statistics, it really is hoped that the reader will take some time to envision each number of fatality as a person whose life ended unnecessarily. I want every reader who thinks this problem is unfixable to recognize that thinking that means they are as complicit as any performative hand-wringing official who parrots the same line. 

There is something fundamentally wrong with us; we privilege property over people, money over humanity, and power over love. We simply do. Sure, you may say “I don’t” and that might be so; but ask yourself how often when you’re thinking about a major problem, you ask about how much it would cost to address the issue? Simply put, if that’s your concern, you’re doing being human wrong.

Yeah, as individuals in this wretched society, we all have blood on our hands. Until something fundamental in the US changes, we are a shithole country. 

Note:

1. “Gun Rights: Chris McNutt declared that Texas is “finally” a pro-gun state. I don’t know where he’s been living; but he must have missed the safe haven Texas granted the beleaguered NRA and hasn’t taken a close look at our gun laws currently on the books. Anyone can now carry a gun without a permit as long as they have not been convicted of a felony or domestic violence. House Bill 1927 is problematic, to say the least, and I’m not looking forward to seeing how it plays out as “good guys with guns” attempt to carry out “justice” based on their own judgement. We already have lax conceal carry laws in this state; the addition of permitless ownership or just carrying - this infers you don’t even have to own the gun you’re carrying - sets the stage for several nasty scenarios, not the least of which is vigilante justice without due process and the repercussions that will stem from that. Again, the working assumption is that this will probably benefit white men who feel oppressed more than any other demographic and in this state, as in most run by like-minded legislators, that’s the only demographic that matters.“ Barrett, 2021.

Sources/Further reading 

Amaryllis, Jenna and Dunbar, Marina. Minneapolis school shooting: two children killed and seventeen injured. The Guardian. August 27, 2025. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/27/minneapolis-active-shooter-school. Note: there is plenty of coverage; I’m just picking this randomly.

Barrett, John. An Unholy Trinity of Legislation in Texas. Dimensionally Barrett. October 1, 2021. https://dimensionallybarrett.blogspot.com/2021/10/an-unholy-trinity-of-legislation-in.html?m=1.

Barrett, John. Back to the Heart of Darkness in Texas and the United States. Dimensionally Barrett. May 9, 2023. https://dimensionallybarrett.blogspot.com/2023/05/back-to-heart-of-darkness-in-texas-and.html?m=1. I’m posting this so I don’t have to repeat all the sources in that post.

K-12 School Shooting Database. https://k12ssdb.org/.

Mak, Tim. NRA Was 'Foreign Asset' To Russia Ahead of 2016, New Senate Report Reveals. NPR. September 27, 2019. https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764879242/nra-was-foreign-asset-to-russia-ahead-of-2016-new-senate-report-reveals.

Richardson, Heather Cox. May 6, 2023. Letters from an American. https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-6-2023. I will never not cite this piece whenever I have to write about a mass shooting.

Shapiro, Ali; Jarenwattanon, Patrick; Restrepo, Manuela Lopez. In Britain, it took just one school shooting to pass major gun control. NPR. June 1, 2022. https://www.npr.org/2022/06/01/1102239642/school-shooting-dunblane-massacre-uvalde-texas-gun-control.

USA Facts Team. The Latest Government Data on School Shootings. USA Facts. February 20, 2024. https://usafacts.org/articles/the-latest-government-data-on-school-shootings/.