If you're looking for a Sunday read, and ICYMI, here's me in The Stone over at @nytopinion on last week's massacre in Texas, and the quasi-theological frame underwriting how we process mass shootings in general. nyti.ms/2m5dPSd
One thing I wish I had stressed more: the sacrificial logic cuts both ways. It's not just pro-gun maximalists who say murder is the price of "freedom."
It also structures how people expect or hope that some single, horrifying massacre will become a tipping point that galvanizes a gun control sea change. The idea that some sufficiently awful tragedy will prove redemptive.
That's part of the allure of sacrifice: that bloodiness, loss, and pain will be purgative, purifying, and cathartic. But the desire for catharsis is a lure, and in the politics of the gun issue, it's a trap.
Multi-pronged, targeted interventions to lower gun deaths and risks for at-risks groups is unglamorous and requires sustained effort. It's the opposite of catharsis. But it's also what would actually make a long-term difference.
Waiting for something huge means waiting forever. It defers responsibility. And it ignores that nothing we might do could ever FEEL redemptive in proportion to the horror of events like Texas or Vegas. But that's why we have to abandon the sacrifice frame.
