Thread by @bymatthewthall

I covered my first school shooting in 2001. First reporter there, I talked to a student the shooter let live, and the mother of one of the dead. Covered my second 17 days later. That was 21 years ago. Every one guts me. Thank you for your words, @ebruenig. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

In 2018 in a new role as editor of @sdutOpinion, as a parent whose oldest had told my wife that she feared she would be the first victim in a school shooting because her desk was by the door, we wrote a six-word editorial. Zoom in. See the names. The ages. Read my column on why.

Here is that column. The pain of these words: sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editor…

“13 people were killed at Columbine High School. At the time, it was the deadliest high school shooting — and one of the worst mass shootings — in modern U.S. history.
Now it’s not even one of the 10 worst.”

Here is how we presented our anguished, angry “ENOUGH” plea online. Again, look at the ages. All those horrific 6s….

That was two months *after* Parkland, when we’d written an even shorter editorial, one with no words. We knew them what we know now. Nothing would change.

Here’s a close up of that brilliant @sdutBreen editorial cartoon. The pain is palpable, the white space wrenching.

Here’s that column FROM FOUR YEARS AGO: sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/commen…

It said we’ve “written too many editorials in recent years about the nation’s gun violence, advocating for reasonable solutions, a respectful debate, any sort of response at all. What has Congress done? Nothing.”

In 2019, we joined the #nonotoriety movement, vowing to not name mass shooters in our editorials: sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editor…

“What’s changed since Columbine?” we wrote. “This.”

Read to the end: “Let’s never say their names again. Let’s limit copycat killers by limiting our copy.”

Then Tuesday came. And armed police officers spent those 78 minutes waiting as elementary school students covered themselves in their dead friends’ blood to survive, and journalists, again, sad, angry and so so fucking tired, worked to get people’s attention. This is what we did.

Here is the cartoon @sdutBreen did a day later. No words? None needed. The emotion in the first two frames is visceral. That third one tho? Deadly accurate. Republicans in Congress have blocked background checks, bans, limitations.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Steve’s next cartoon used the words of the @NRA against it. Zoom into the puddle of blood. Look at the reflection. 💀

So here I sit on a Saturday. This week I battled COVID, a 103° fever and a hacking cough. I put all my remaining energy into wrapping our election coverage. I retracted an election endorsement. What will I remember about this week? That 21 people are gone WHO SHOULDN’T BE.

-30-

Everyone who knows me knows how pained I am by the“six-word” typo that should be “six-letter” in the second tweet of this 🧵…. Just another reason to support local journalism. We try so hard it hurts. Anyways, thanks for reading. Thanks for needing a change so much it hurts you.