Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 12, 2015)
OPINION 6A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2015 U.S. moms, their sons and guns By TIMOTHY EGAN New York Times News Service Founded in 1873 STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager CARL EARL, Systems Manager JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager I t passed with little notice when an 11-year-old boy shot and killed an 8-year-old girl a few days ago in Tennessee — shot her because she wouldn’t show him her puppy. The boy used his family’s 12-gauge shotgun to kill the sec- HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager ond-grader. It passed, as these things do in a country that accepts more than 33,000 deaths by gun- ¿UH HYHU\ \HDU because we now live by an Onion head- o many generations, the Astoria Column is Astoria’s signa- line that’s long Timothy ceased to be Egan ture. It is our most visited attraction. satirical: “‘No A gift of the Great Northern Schnitzer’s sentimental attach- Way to Prevent This,’ Says Only Na- Railway, built on city property, the ment to Astoria led him to create tion Where This Regularly Happens.” The mass shooting in Roseburg Column’s inauguration in 1926 Friends of the Column, a fund- was followed by cowardice and ratio- was a grand occasion. The key- UDLVLQJ QRQSUR¿W ZKRVH PLVVLRQ nalizations from leading politicians note speaker was a young Samuel is maintenance of the Column. and would-be politicians. Donald Eliot Morison, who would be- Hundreds of generous people Trump, who has an answer for ev- come America’s greatest naval — in Astoria and Clatsop County, erything, said nothing could be done, “It’s the mind that does the historian and distinguish himself as well as Portland — made gifts because shooting.” Jeb Bush shrugged and ZLWKWKHRI¿FLDO1DYDOKLVWRU\RI to fund the 1995 restoration, and said, “stuff happens.” And Ben Carson implied that World War II. In his talk, Morison its successor. In addition to the the nine victims in the community coined the phrase that Astoria was Column’s surface, the Friends college massacre were somewhat “the Plymouth Rock of the West.” have redone the landscaping at to blame because of their passivity Harsh weather is the Astoria the base. during a split-second of life-ending Column’s constant companion. The Column that was unveiled horror. Carson was ignorant of the Buffeted by wind and rain, the last week is a wonder. The im- actions of an Army veteran, Chris Mintz, who tried to stop the Roseburg Column was badly faded in the ages are brightly restored so that killer and was shot seven times. 1980s. The city parks director, one again may read the story of Carson, who is a crackpot on po- Fred Lindstrom, was frustrated in this region’s history — from the litical issues, then went one further, absolutist gun rights are KLVGRJJHGDWWHPSWWR¿QGDPHWK- Chinook nation to the arrival of claiming more important than human lives: “I od for restoring the Column’s vi- Robert Gray, Lewis and Clark and never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking brant frescoes. John Jacob Astor’s expedition. Enter Jordan Schnitzer of A town that lets its treasures the right to arm ourselves away.” So don’t look for solutions from Portland, whose grandfather Sam languish is preparing for its the political system, which can’t even Schnitzer started his commercial own death. Bringing the Astoria produce a background check measure career in Astoria as a metals sal- Column back to life has been a supported by 90 percent of citizens. vager. Jordan Schnitzer found a signature moment in the town’s The system is not only broken, but rigged on behalf of a lobby of fanatics restorations expert named Frank rebirth. All of us are grateful to who control one political party, forc- Preusser at the Getty Museum. the Friends for their tireless fund- ing it to respond to mass killings with ever more incoherent statements. Preusser fashioned a solution. raising. We should look, instead, to the mothers of America. The politics have to be replaced by the personal. Can we blame the mother of Adam Lanza, who let a mentally disturbed child arm himself to the teeth just be- fore he slaughtered 20 children and six adults in Newtown? The home was an arsenal, supplied in part by the mother. Can we blame the mother of the Oregon shooter for letting her trou- bled son surround himself with 14 DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager It’s back T Friends of the Column are stewards of Astoria’s landmark Tight housing market has consequences C Our sFhool distriFts reÀeFt Oregon in homeless students onsidering the well-docu- mented tightness of Clatsop County’s housing and rental mar- ket, it should come as no surprise that some families with school- age children are struggling with homelessness. During the 2014-15 school year, Oregon school districts served more than 20,500 K-12 students experiencing homeless- ness, the Oregon Department of Education said earlier this month. This is about 9 percent more than in 2013-14. Most of the increase ZDVIRUVWXGHQWVLGHQWL¿HGDV³XQ- sheltered,” meaning they live in vehicles, tents and other forms of substandard housing. Statistics for Clatsop County suggest the extent of the problem: Warrenton-Hammond School District had 117 homeless stu- dents in the latest count, 126 a year before and 119 the year be- fore that. Astoria School District recorded 64 most recently, 46 one year earlier and 52 two years ear- lier. There can be no doubt that too many Oregon children face day-to-day worries and strug- gles about where they live. This doesn’t mean they are living un- der bridges; some are in motels, others in vehicles, some precari- ously perched with friends. In any event, it would be horribly chal- lenging to keep up with home- work, participate in extracurric- ular activities, or live up to peer expectations without a consistent and safe housing situation. “Despite an improving econ- omy, many Oregon families are still struggling just to meet their most basic needs,” Deputy Superintendent Salam Noor said in an Oct. 1 press release. “Far too many children don’t know where their next meal is coming from or where they will sleep at QLJKW7KHVLJQL¿FDQWLQFUHDVHLQ homeless youth — particularly in unsheltered youth — is deeply troubling.” Noor points to the homeless liaisons in each school district as an effective way helping families connect with services. In addition, DOORXUFRPPXQLWLHVEHQH¿WIURP concerned citizens, churches and charities that make valiant efforts to alleviate family crises that may result in tenuous housing for local kids. It almost goes without saying that some considerable percent- age of students’ homelessness would be solved by better job opportunities for the grownups in their lives. However, even KDUGZRUNLQJ FRXSOHV ¿QG LW LQFUHDVLQJO\ GLI¿FXOW WR DIIRUG housing here. As the Columbia- 3DFL¿FUHDOHVWDWHPDUNHWFRQWLQ- ues heating up due to a combi- nation of factors, apartments and low-cost rental homes are certain to become more scarce. In our small, rural way, our housing issues resemble those in the West Coast’s big cities. Property tax incentives are a key way they encourage develop- ers to guarantee new apartment buildings set aside a percentage of units for lower-income ten- ants. We should begin studying and adopting similar policies now that will ensure we have adequate housing in coming years. Douglas County Museum/AP Robert F. Kennedy speaks to a crowd outside the Douglas County Courthouse during a campaign stop in Roseburg in 1968. Kennedy was booed when he used the speech to call for tighter gun restrictions. guns? Like Lanza, the attacker was To be clear, mental illness does a loner, with imaginary enemies, not equal violence. But having guns suicidal at times. What reasonable around people who are likely to do person would allow him to assemble harm to themselves or others is mad- more than a dozen guns, including as- ness. And it can be stopped. VDXOWULÀHV" What about the fa- Oh, but it’s a chance thers? Gov. Bobby Jin- There to bond, mother and child dal of Louisiana said the over guns. There are so Oregon shooter’s father, are so many nonlethal ways to divorced and absent for some time from his son, bond — hike, cook, give many was “a failure” who the child a camera and tell nonlethal “owes us all an apology.” him to capture life. Fathers certainly have Yes, the Roseburg ways to an equal responsibility. shooter was an adult. He But it’s the mothers, in could legally buy his own bond. most cases, who know weapons. Still, he was the names of their chil- living with his mother, the one person who should know him dren’s teachers, who understand their better than anyone. She may have deepest fears, who have a unique re- been blinded by her own obsession lationship. A group, Moms Demand Ac- with guns, as evidenced from her so- tion for Gun Sense in America, was cial media postings. Only in a country with a pathologi- formed after the Newtown carnage. cal refusal to recognize the truth about It’s a good counter to the creepy cult- weapons and deaths would parents ists of the gun culture. Their best ap- peal is likely to be one of reason to the arm their mentally unstable children. In two-thirds of the nation’s hearts of fellow mothers, rather than school shootings, the attackers used to heartless politicians at the legisla- guns from the home or a relative’s tive level. Friday, President Obama tried to residence. Shootings rank near the top as a leading cause of death among console some of the mothers in Ore- children and teens, and 60 percent of gon whose children were murdered in a community college writing class. those occur in the home. But just as we can fault mothers in He followed in the footsteps of Robert many cases, we can look to them for F. Kennedy, who was in Roseburg 47 year ago, warning about violent people our salvation. Take it from Liza Long, a Boise, buying guns through the mail. A few Idaho, mother of three, who produced weeks later, he was assassinated by a a blog, “I am Adam Lanza’s Moth- crazed gunman. Nothing’s changed. In embracing the mothers, the er,” that went viral after the 2012 Newtown shootings. “I live with a president who never knew a father son who is mentally ill,” she wrote. can be part of a new effort — a per- ³,ORYHP\VRQ%XWKHWHUUL¿HVPH´ sonal plea to those who don’t need the She says she would never have a gun gun lobby’s permission to do the right thing. in her home. Another massacre, another charade DERXW DFFLGHQW SURR¿QJ had been found by police — is that both sides know a few weeks earlier in a that the only measure that hotel room, psychotic and paranoid. They advised him might actually prevent to get psychiatric help. Ad- ASHINGTON — There’s mass killings has absolute- vised. Predictably, he fell ly no chance of ever being the cycle of poverty. through the mental health enacted. There’s the cycle of violence. And cracks. A month later, he Mere “commonsense” then there’s the cycle of gun talk. regulation, like the assault killed 12 and was killed himself, another casualty It starts with a mass shooting. weapons ban of 1994 that of a mental health system was allowed to lapse 10 Gun-control advocates blame the Charles that lets the severely psy- years later, does little more Krauthammer deaths on gun-control opponents, chiatrically ill — you see than make us feel good. A who argue, in turn, that none of the Justice Department study found “no them sleeping on grates — live and die proposed restrictions would have discernible reduction in the lethality wretchedly abandoned. had any effect on the incident in and injuriousness of gun violence.” The problem is that these As for the only remotely plausible mass-murder cases are fairly unusu- question. solution, Obama dare not speak its al. Take Roseburg. That young man The debate goes nowhere. The me- name. He made an oblique reference had no criminal history, no psychiat- dia move on. to Australia, never mentioning that ric diagnosis beyond Asperger’s, no Until the next incident, when the its gun-control innovation was con- involvement in public disturbances. cycle begins again. ¿VFDWLRQ E\ PHDQV RI D PDQGDWRU\ +RZ GR \RX ¿QG OHW DORQH ORFN XS So with the Roseburg massacre buyback. There’s a reason he didn’t someone like that? in Oregon. Within hours, President EULQJ XS FRQ¿VFDWLRQ DSDUW IURP WKH There are 320 million Ameri- Obama takes to the microphones to fu- GHEDWHDERXWLWVDFWXDOHI¿FDF\LQUH- cans. Schizophrenia affects about riously denounce the NRA and its ilk ducing gun violence in Australia). In 1 percent of the population. That’s for resisting “commonsense gun-safe- this country, with its traditions, pub- about 3 million people. Only a tiny ty laws.” His harangue lic sentiment and, most fraction are ever violent — and pre- is totally sincere, totally importantly, Second dicting which ones will be is almost How do knee-jerk and totally Amendment, them’s impossible. Loner, socially isolated, often im- pointless. At the time you find, ¿JKWLQ¶ZRUGV he delivers it, he — and Obama didn’t say mersed in a fantasy world of violent we — know practically let alone them. Nor did he serious- video games. There are myriad such nothing about the shoot- ly address the other ap- young men out there, but with differ- lock up, proach that could make a ent ages of onset, in different stages of er, nothing about the weapons, nothing about difference: more aggres- derangement. Only a handful will ever how they were obtained. someone sive psychiatric interven- harm anyone. What to do? Forcibly Nor does Obama pro- like that? tion. These massacres apprehend them, treat them, put them pose any legislation. He are almost invariably on perpetual preventive parole? By the knows none would pass. perpetrated by severely tens of thousands? Committing the Jared Loughners But the deeper truth is that it would disturbed, isolated, often delusional would have an effect. But even they have made no difference. Does any- young men. one really believe that the (alleged) Yet even here, our reach is limit- are the exception among the shoot- gun-show loophole had anything to do ed. In some cases, yes, involuntary ers. Yet “commonsense” gun control with Roseburg? Universal background commitment would have made a dif- would do even less. Unless you’re checks sound wonderful. But Oregon ference. Jared Loughner, the Tucson willing to go all the way. ,QWKH¿QDOTXDUWHURIKLVSUHVLGHQ- already has one. The Roseburg shooter shooter, was so unstable, so menacing, and his mother obtained every one of that fellow students at his community cy, Obama can very well say what he their guns legally. college feared, said one, that he would wants. If he believes in Australian-style The reason the debate is so mud- “come into class with an automatic FRQ¿VFDWLRQ ² LH DEROLVKLQJ WKH dled, indeed surreal — notice, by weapon.” Under our crazy laws, how- Second Amendment — why not spell the way, how “gun control” has been ever, he had to kill before he could be it out? Until he does, he should stop demonizing people for not doing what cleverly rechristened “commonsense locked up. gun-safety laws,” as if we’re talking Similarly, the Navy Yard shooter he won’t even propose. By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER Washington Post Writers Group W
