Column: The Sacramento shooting again shows mass killers in our midst. The pandemic made it worse

Father Michael O’Reilly stood on the steps of the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in his lengthy, purple robes, taking a look at a criminal offense scene simply toes away the place greater than a dozen proof markers have been laid out.

It was surreal, he informed me, and he felt dangerous that one among his first ideas was whether or not the church would be capable of welcome parishioners that morning, with a mass taking pictures shutting down streets for blocks round us.

However individuals have been already wandering into this grand cathedral that lies within reach of the state Capitol, unaware of the taking pictures or possibly needing consolation due to it. Life goes on, even with six our bodies nonetheless on the pavement. We settle for the unacceptable, or not less than endure it.

That is, in spite of everything, the twelfth mass taking pictures in California this 12 months. Everyone knows what occurs subsequent. The method has already began. We’re horrified. Outraged. Saddened. I’ve received a stack of press releases from politicians throughout the state who need voters to know that is unacceptable.

I received’t be quoting any of them. I believe you understand why.

It’s all sound and fury for a gun violence disaster that has lengthy eaten on the soul of this nation. Individuals die day-after-day, shot by those that don’t respect legal guidelines or lives, or who’re so unstable they shouldn’t have weapons within the first place. All of the whereas, the remainder of us argue over whether or not the 2nd Modification protects the usage of computerized weapons on our metropolis streets.

However there was little dialogue of gun rights amongst these I spoke with Sunday morning, as police collected bullet casings and bloody proof and the corpses of three males and three girls waited within the unseasonable warmth to be collected.

I stood behind police tape, the place household and associates tried to separate themselves from the handfuls of tv reporters whose cameras have been educated on the tragedy, submitting their studies for the afternoon information. Fred Harris, the daddy of Sergio Harris, one of many victims, pushed below the tape twice to confront officers and demand solutions.

However the fact is, there are not any solutions that can soothe his ache. His son is useless. I’ve spoken to too many relations who misplaced a beloved one to violence. Lots of them have shared this sorrowful actuality with me: Nothing could make it proper.

The individuals I spoke with mentioned there are extra weapons on the road than ever. The pandemic, they mentioned, pushed up the numbers of each type of weapon — the legally owned ones, ghost weapons which might be Frankensteined along with untraceable elements and weapons stolen, traded, imported or in any other case not a part of the official system.

Police discovered a stolen handgun on the scene, they mentioned, and a number of individuals who have been there Sunday informed me of speedy pictures coming from a dashing automotive, the telltale sound of an computerized weapon being fired.

“Rat-a-tat-tat,” mentioned Timothy Langier, a homeless man who was in a close-by doorway.

“All people has a gun now,” mentioned Stevante Clark, a neighborhood activist who got here to consolation the relations of victims. “Anybody who tells you in any other case resides below a rock.”

Berry Accius, one other neighborhood activist who has lengthy labored on violence prevention, arrived downtown shortly after the two a.m. bloodbath and had been there for 5 hours by the point he and I spoke. He echoed Clark, telling me that at first of the 12 months, he cautioned that we must be “laser-focused” on weapons after the pandemic. However nobody was listening then.

Now, as Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg mentioned at a press convention later within the day, “summer season is coming.” He mentioned it like a warning, twice. “Summer time is coming.”

Individuals are popping out of isolation, with all these weapons. Ok Avenue, the place the violence occurred, is house to a few of Sacramento’s hottest golf equipment. It’s a strolling avenue, and on heat weekend nights, it may be filled with revelers within the early morning hours, when these bars shut and the patrons spill out.

As a result of Sacramento is small and there aren’t many golf equipment of word, all types of individuals — some who don’t get alongside — discover themselves crammed collectively on Ok Avenue. Almost each night time, mentioned Clark, there are fights. For years, ever since this strip of downtown has tried to revitalize itself after years of decline, there’s been speak of the way to preserve peace on the Kay, as metropolis entrepreneurs dubbed the stretch.

I don’t know if gangs have been concerned in no matter occurred Sunday night time. However, as Leia Schenk, who additionally works on neighborhood points, mentioned, all these weapons imply “you possibly can’t have a fist struggle anymore.”

Somebody goes to tug out a gun, and “then all these bystanders are killed,” she mentioned.

Sacramento County Dist. Atty. Anne Marie Schubert, who’s working for state legal professional basic on a get-tough-on-crime platform, informed me that since 2019, her workplace has seen a forty five% improve within the variety of instances filed for felons in possession of a firearm. It’s not simply Sacramento that’s seeing that rise, she mentioned. It’s occurring throughout the nation.

“I’ve been screaming about this for over a 12 months, what number of unlawful weapons there are on the streets,” she mentioned. “You speak to any chief of a serious metropolis throughout the nation, they are going to inform you an identical factor.”

Schubert and I’ve been speaking for months about that rise. She thinks it’s from a mix of things: individuals afraid in the course of the pandemic, rising financial inequity, organized unemployment fraud that left criminals with tens of millions in ill-gotten funds. It was, she mentioned, inevitable that COVID-19 would make issues worse.

“I’m not saying I’m a tarot card reader; I’m simply saying it’s a nasty mixture of issues,” Schubert mentioned.

So, California, that’s the place we’re at. A disaster of weapons that was devastating earlier than the pandemic has now been supercharged, no matter who you ask. Everyone knows it.

There may be going to be a thirteenth mass taking pictures, and a 14th and a fifteenth. Steinberg referred to as America’s place on weapons “one of many best indicators of irrationality and illness in our nation.”

If there’s any approach out of this very darkish wormhole of gun violence, it’s the likelihood that an empowered majority of People are waking as much as the reality. The reality is that the 2nd Modification might be protected with out enabling quick access to assault weapons.

These weapons have been mistaken as a basic worth of our democracy, one way or the other enshrined in our Structure and Invoice of Rights, however they aren’t. No person wants a machine gun for self-defense or anything. No person wants to fireplace 600 rounds in a minute.

Too usually, these weapons are about loss of life, not self-protection. They’re about taking away essentially the most basic proper: the fitting to exist, and to do it with out worry.

As sundown turns downtown again to darkness, I’m left with the picture of Pamela Harris, Sergio’s mom, bent in Clark’s arm, yelling to nobody, “Why did they do that to my child?”

And I can’t assist however surprise, why can we do that to ourselves?