Some People Just Can’t Refrain from Partisan Politics in Wake of Tragedy

Police chief's comments on school security and suspect's gender exudes partisan politics

Abundant Life Christian School, Madison, Wisconsin Photo: (Corey Coyle, Creative Commons Attribution 3.0)

Once again, a horrific shooting at a school has occurred. A student purportedly shot multiple people at the 390-student K-12 Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin. Reportedly, the shooter, armed with a handgun, killed two, an adult and a student, wounded six students, and then committed suicide.

I wouldn’t comment politically on this so soon if not for the gun-stupid leftist political commentary, including from the Madison police chief at a press conference, already flooding the airwaves. Commentary we should challenge.

We’re now seeing the usual prickly gun-stupidity in the wake of the horror. While the leftists didn’t seem to care about the CEO suspect’s gun use after he allegedly shot a man from behind in New York City, suddenly, the Left’s anti-gunners are back.

According to CBS News, Madison Police Chief Shon F. Barnes, whose press conference initial comments were mostly appropriate, couldn’t refrain from veering into politics.

The chief appropriately said, “I’m feeling a little dismayed now, so close to Christmas. Every child, every person in that building, is a victim and will be a victim forever. These types of trauma don’t just go away.”

He’s right, but he just had to tack on his partisan political philosophy on school security. Though we don’t know the school’s security measures, the topic came up when a reporter at the press conference asked Chief Barnes whether the school had metal detectors.

The chief answered, “I’m not aware that the school had metal detectors, nor should schools have metal detectors. It’s a safe space” [emphasis added].

He should have stopped after he said he didn’t know whether the school had metal detectors. But he just had to provide his political opinion that he doesn’t believe schools should have metal detectors.

Whether they should or not, what does his belief have to do with this incident especially in the heat of the suffering? I don’t want schools to feel that they should have metal detectors, either, but that means nothing to bad guys with guns.

Officials have said worse things at similar incidents, reflecting the gun-stupid side of self-defense and school security issues, but this was still selfish. These leaders seem more concerned with what they feel should be (fantasy) rather than dealing with what is (reality).

But it’s his last comment where Chief Barnes sidestepped logic and lunged into folly, saying, “It’s a safe space.” A term associated with leftist jargon.

Even if it usually is, and should be, on this particular day, how could he say that? Security measures, like insurance policies or sprinkler systems, don’t exist for the normal; they exist for the abnormal that probably won’t but may happen. But even with insurance policies and sprinkler systems, tragically, death and destruction can still happen.

He said this right after a suspect had shot, killed, or wounded people, including kids, in this “safe space.” I agree it should always be a safe space, which—despite this incident, schools generally are. But, on that day, a shooter made sure it wasn’t.

As people, like libertarian John Stossel, at JohnStossleTV.com, have repeatedly reminded us over the years, schools are generally some of the safest spaces in America for children.

John Tierney, at City Journal, wrote in May 2022, “‘There is not an epidemic of mass shootings,’ says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University who has been tracking these events for decades and helps keep the AP/USA Today/Northeastern Mass Killing database. ‘What’s increasing and is out of control is the epidemic of fear.’”

Fox also notes the odds of an American child being killed in a school shooting is “10 million to 1.” While this means little to those suffering these unthinkable losses, these odds are similar to those children “being killed by lightning or dying in an earthquake.”

The ubiquitous, incessant 24/7 news media and its leftist-biased reporting, focusing on anti-gun only issues, also don’t help matters.

But, on that day, this school wasn’t safe. I don’t know what security measures they have, but no place will ever be 100 percent safe from all dangers. However, there are schools across the nation, and also overseas in countries like Israel, that have implemented security measures to harden their soft targets, like schools.

A safe space is meaningless if you don’t do the things to make it a safe space. The chief wants it to be a safe space—we all do. But he seems to suggest pretending it’s safe by simply saying it’s a safe space is enough.

But saying it doesn’t make it so, as this diabolical incident shows us. You can’t say a place should be a “safe space” but not want to even consider the tough, practical things that make it a safe space.

And, strangely, there is an odd silence surrounding information about the school shooting suspect’s gender. While it’s being widely reported the suspect was a 15-year-old female, at this time, officially, authorities are withholding the suspect’s sex for some reason. What could that possibly be?

Well, maybe that “some reason” isn’t so obscure, after all. According to the NY Post, and eerily similar to the 2023 Nashville school shooting, “Police say the shooter’s gender didn’t play a role amid rumors the shooter identified as transgender.”

How about when an incident like this occurs, officials resist the selfish impulse to inflict their political opinions on others who may disagree? They could also refrain from holding back information that doesn’t adhere to a preferred political narrative. In other words, transparency.

Although, as in Nashville, the gun-stupid, leftist anti-gunners sure shut up about gun control once the information about the suspect’s gender issues became public. Perhaps, that will happen in Madison, too.

Perhaps the chief should make his press conferences a safe space for those who disagree with his political views. And, a final comment: don’t hold your breath waiting for a motive—or, at least, the true motive.

And, please, don’t let there be a manifesto.