In her poem “aftermath,” poet-activist June Jordan writes “I am tired from this digging up of human bodies no one loved enough to save from death.” Jordan’s words could not resonate more poignantly than in the current moment: one in which America has witnessed yet another tragedy.
On June 12, a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida marked one of the deadliest massacres in modern U.S. history. 49 people were murdered, innocent lives stolen far too prematurely and violently, with more than 50 others wounded. It is a loss of epic proportions. An act of hate and terror, it was a deliberate attack on the LGBTQ community that overwhelmingly claimed the lives of gay, trans, and queer people of color—brown and black bodies—who are so frequently and disproportionately victimized by hate crimes and deadly violence.
While we know the Orlando shooting was driven by hate, compounded by a desire to inflict violence and terror, so little—including the shooter’s motivations—is yet known. Was he radicalized by ISIS? Was he gay, suppressing his sexual orientation, and committed this crime as a public performance of (aggressive) masculinity? Was he mentally unstable?
We may never know the full details, the shooter’s motivations, or the totality of the circumstances. Yet, it is incumbent on us, as individuals and as a nation, to determine the patterns of mass shootings and, importantly, what we might do to mitigate and prevent them. As a start, here are some factors to consider.
1. Stop Normalizing Hate
An overwhelming response to the shooting was that it was “senseless”. It is not difficult to accept that characterization since the shooting was irrational and beyond reason. Yet, is it not time for us to question whether such crimes and violence “make sense” in how overwhelmingly commonplace hate has become?
Consider how inundated we are with hate and violence regularly, so much so that hatred—in word and deed—becomes “normalized”. Social media trolls and self-professed “Christians” protesting the funerals in Orlando (with derogatory homophobic “God Hates F*gs” signs) to even a presumptive presidential candidate, Donald Trump, spew racist, sexist, xenophobic, and Islamophobic, as well as homophobic and transphobic sentiments. Nearly everything conspires to encourage—willfully or inadvertently, consciously and unintentionally—hate, intolerance, and physical violence.
While it seems elementary to articulate, it is worth underscoring that no hate, terror, or violence is tolerable nor is it ever justifiable against any person or group—period. After all, our struggles and oppressions, as well as our very freedoms and destinies, are intertwined.
2. Rethink How We Construct Masculinity
Mass shootings are almost always committed by male shooters. We have to change how we socialize boys and men within narrow constructions and dangerous, stereotypical confines of masculinity. Take a look at recent mass shootings. The University of California Santa Barbara gunman killed 6 people while professing he sought to kill sorority women and others as revenge because they had rejected him.
In last year’s Emanuel A.M.E. Church shooting, the self-proclaimed white supremacist killer despised African Americans and explained before killing 9 church-goers in Bible study that “You rape our women, and you are taking over our country. And you have to go.” As convoluted as his illogical statement was, he asserted that he would be a man of “bravery” to rescue white womanhood in a false antiquated mythology that seems to have been from D.W. Griffith’s 1915 film The Birth of a Nation (based on Thomas Dixon’s The Clansman: An Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan).
And Orlando is no outlier. Even as the shooter was remarried with children, some speculated he was gay; another claims he was his gay lover. In a society that associates manhood and masculinity with aggression, violence, heterosexual virility, privilege and access (whether to women’s bodies or success), a shooting spree and pledged allegiance to ISIS—a violent male extremist terrorist group—is one way to claim or approximate stereotypical notions of masculinity.
There are consequences when these shooters, who by their own admission or evidence, do not meet societal constructions or expectations of manhood. Others suffer and, far worse, die as the shooters overcompensate through violent aggression for male fragility, fractured male ego, or their perceived “inadequacies” as men. It is time to reconsider the toxic images we project about manhood and dissociate masculinity from these.
3. Better Regulation of Assault Rifles
Mass shooters mostly use high-powered, military-type artillery like an AR-15 assault rifle that slaughters masses instantaneously. In America, it should not be more difficult to buy non-prescription Sudafed, get a driver’s license or U.S. passport, go through airport security, or adopt a child—or even a dog, for that matter—than it is to purchase an assault rifle.
If the government regulates access to the aforementioned for public health, safety, and security measures, surely it can and should implement stricter gun control, especially for assault rifles. In the final analysis, “we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be,” as President Obama noted in his Orlando speech, because “to actively do nothing is a decision as well.”
Fortunately, the Supreme Court’s recent refusal to hear a challenge to assault weapons bans offers hope, as does Democrats’ historic sit-in demonstration on the House floor on Wednesday over Republicans’ refusal to hold a gun legislation vote.
4. Stop Sensationalizing Shooters
In too many instances, these gunmen wanted notoriety and public attention. Some left manifestos and another, in Charleston, left a survivor to tell the story, while the Orlando shooter called the news station to ensure national coverage, attention, and an historical record.
In giving the shooters coverage, we privilege and sensationalize them while potentially inspiring copycats. For that very reason, I have not mentioned a single solitary shooter by name precisely and intentionally as not to glorify, celebrate, or empower them.
Can, then, we commit in earnest to preventing mass shootings—and, importantly, love “human bodies” and people enough to save them from death? After all, our lives depend on it—literally.