From Columbine to Santa Fe by Henry Mantel

On the morning of April 20, 1999, two students at Columbine High School in Colorado walked into school carrying a Hi-Point 995 Carbine, a 9x19mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun, a Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun, and a Stevens 311D double-barreled shotgun and proceeded to murder twelve students and one teacher before turning the guns on themselves. At the time, it was the deadliest school shooting in United States history.

In the immediate aftermath, there was a lot of talk about what was to blame and what the proper response was. Politicians blamed video games, Marilyn Manson, and bullying, among other things. Several parents of those killed in Columbine blamed guns.

Less than two weeks after the shooting, the National Rifle Association held their yearly convention in Denver. Despite protests, the NRA did not cancel the convention. During the convention, NRA President Charlton Heston gave a speech in which he called Columbine an “isolated, terrible event” and insisted that the NRA was “not the villain in American society.”

“We cannot, we must not, let tragedy lay waste to the most rare and hard won human right in history,” Heston stated. “The Founding Fathers guaranteed this freedom because they knew no tyranny can ever arise among a people endowed with a right to keep and bear arms. That’s why you and your descendants need never fear fascism, state-run fatih, refugee camps, brainwashing, ethnic cleansing, or especially submission to the wanton will of criminals.”

The federal government did not implement any additional gun control measures after Columbine, thanks in part to lobbying by the NRA. 

In Blacksburg, Virginia, on the morning of April 16, 2007, a student at Virginia Polytechnic Institute used a Glock 19 and a Walther P22 to kill 32 people and wound 17 others before committing suicide. At the time, it was deadliest mass shooting committed by a lone gunman in United States history. 

Once again, there was a lot of talk about what was to blame. The lack of security at the university, mental health, and police response time were all thought to be at fault. This time, however, gun culture became a much bigger issue. The shooter had been able to obtain the handguns despite his diagnosed mental disorder because of gaps in the federal background check system. 

This increased scrutiny lead to the first federal gun control legislation in years; the legislation improved state reporting to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). The legislation would help prevent guns from being sold to criminals, the mentally ill, and others prohibited from owning firearms. The bill passed with support from both the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and the NRA. 

Five years later, on December 14, 2012, a man in Newton, Connecticut murdered his mother then took her Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle and ten magazines with 30 rounds each and drove to Sandy Hook Elementary school where he murdered twenty-six people, twenty of them children between six and seven years old. It was the deadliest mass shooting at either a primary or secondary school, the second-deadliest U.S. school shooting overall, and the fourth-deadliest shooting in U.S. history.

The day of the shooting, President Obama addressed the nation and stated that meaningful action needed to be taken to prevent more mass shootings. NRA President Wayne LaPierre publicly blamed video games for the shooting. One month after Sandy Hook, Obama announced a plan for reducing gun violence that included 23 executive actions and 12 legislative proposals for Congress. Obama immediately signed every executive order. Meanwhile, every single legislative proposal was blocked in the legislature by the Republican Party, backed by the NRA.

On October 1, 2015, a 26-year-old student at Umpqua Community College near Roseburg, Oregon entered a classroom with four semi-automatic pistols (a Smith & Wesson M99, a Taurus PT24/7, a Hi-Point CF-380, a Glock 19), a revolver (S&W M642-2), and a semi-automatic rifle (Del-Ton DTI-15) and killed nine people while injuring eight others before getting into a brief firefight with police officers and then committing suicide. The mass shooting was the deadliest in Oregon's modern history.

No new federal gun legislation was passed.

On February 18, 2018, a gunman opened fire with an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle (Smith & Wesson M&P15 Sport II) at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, killing 17 people and injuring 17 others before fleeing the scene and getting arrested an hour later. The Parkland shooting became the deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.

No new federal gun legislation was passed.

Exactly three months later, on the morning of May 18, 2018, a 17-year-old student at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas walked into the school's art complex with a 12 gauge Remington 870 shotgun and a Rossi .38-caliber snub-nosed revolver and killed ten people, two teachers and eight students, and injured thirteen others. The shooting is the third-deadliest high school shooting in U.S. history.

No new federal gun legislation was passed.

Over and over again, Americans are killed because Republicans and the NRA refuse to pass even the most minor, common-sense gun control legislation. So long as America's gun laws remain weak these mass shootings will continue to happen.