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In 1966, Charles Whitman ascended the tower at the University of Texas in Austin and proceeded to shoot 16 people dead. We remember his name not because what he did was so horrific or impossible to understand -- though it was both -- but because it was so unusual. 1/x
In 1999, two teenagers, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked into their school in Aurora, Colo., and murdered a dozen classmates and a teacher. We remember their names because these were children killing children. It was horrific, impossible to understand and unusual. 2/x
Then shooters went after small children and targeted -- but failed to kill -- members of Congress. School after school. State after state. Community after community. Some repeated. A Columbine, Colo., high school and an Aurora, Colo., theater -- what, half an hour apart. 3/x
Sometimes in states with strict gun control laws, often in states where residents can carry pretty freely. Disproportionately in Texas among the deadliest mass shootings in the post-World War II era. 4/x
We can't remember names of the killers anymore because, terrifyingly, they aren't alone. They belong to a list so long they don't stand out. The victims? Too many to memorize. The families of those victims — the husbands, wives, children, parents, siblings? Too many to count. 5/x
If Congress wouldn't act when its own members were shot, if Congress wouldn't act when children were slaughtered in their classrooms, if Congress wouldn't act when rampages occurred in red and blue districts and states -- in election years and off years -- don't expect much. 6/x
Is the right answer something that's on the table now? Is it a compromise of some sorts? Is it something that hasn't yet been proposed? Is it codifying certain rights & extending privileges for majority safe gun owners in exchange for clip restrictions and checks, etc.? 7/x
There are endless permutations. But there are 536 people (members of Congress plus the president) who are elected, take an oath to protect and defend the Constitution — which promises to provide for the common defense — and are responsible for working with each other so that 8/x
God forbid some psychopath goes on a murder spree, it's such an unholy anomaly that his name is etched permanently in our minds. So that his victims' names come easily to the tips of our tongues, rather than passing briefly through our thoughts and prayers like so many others.9/x
Those who would do nothing because they worry about slippery slopes of gun control have forwarded arguments like: if the gun was purchased legally, new background checks wouldn't have helped and if the gun was purchased illegally, new background checks wouldn't have helped. 10/x
Gun control advocates have won the public debate on background checks, clip limits and other restrictions and still have gained no ground. If they are to find solutions, they're going to have to figure out how to move votes in Washington. That will take more creativity. 11/x
What we have now is a government that is paralyzed and disconnected -- as on so many issues -- from the rest of the country. But it doesn't have to be that way. Protecting the public from threats is that solemn oath electeds take, and they're not doing it. 12/x
Until they do — until they make mass murderers freaks again — they're failing. And we will be left to hope, with sickened stomachs, pained souls and feelings of helplessness that the absence of infamy turns out to be enough to make the slaughter of innocents less appealing 13/13
