I just watched President Obama’s response to the shooting in Oregon… Wow. Seeing the president of the United States – one of the most powerful people in the world – express such helplessness really hit a nerve with me.<\/p>\n
So I did a little research about school shootings. It was easy enough to find. According to Everytown<\/a>, there have been 45 school shootings in 2015 (26 where one or more people were hurt and\/or killed). I’m writing this at the beginning of October, and a little quick math tells us that we’re averaging 2.6\u00a0school attacks per month.<\/p>\n What I couldn’t find was any sort of federal legislation addressing the problem. I found\u00a0some executive orders (back in 2013), but nothing this year, and no legislation this year. I did find an article about Congress putting a stop to CDC research on gun violence<\/a>.<\/p>\n Again… Wow.<\/p>\n Please don’t start screaming about Republicans,\u00a0Democrats, or\u00a0Americans. \u00a0This is not a post about politics. This also is not a post about guns or mental health facilities.<\/p>\n This is a post from a guy who writes stories for kids, coaches kids’ soccer, and is a dad.<\/p>\n In all three of those roles, one concept that I keep firmly\u00a0in mind is character.<\/p>\n When I’m writing, character is paramount to everything.\u00a0How would this person react to this threat? Would he run away? Would he tell a lie to escape\u00a0trouble? Would she stand up to protect\u00a0her friends?<\/p>\n In\u00a0soccer, personal character is what defines\u00a0a\u00a0good team.\u00a0If you’ve ever\u00a0watched sports, you’ve seen teams without character. Their players scream at each other (and the coach). They cheat every chance they get and they celebrate the opposing team’s injuries.<\/p>\n As a dad, character is a never-ending\u00a0topic of conversation in our house. Years ago, my oldest son got in trouble for fighting on the bus. He was in\u00a0first\u00a0grade at the time, and I was really surprised.\u00a0Then I found out he’d been defending one of his friends, a boy who was on the autistic spectrum. A group of other kids had been\u00a0picking on him, throwing insults and bits of paper. My son tried to stop them.<\/p>\n We had our first real character discussion\u00a0after that fight, when\u00a0my wife and I explained to him how proud we were, and that we would always support him taking action\u00a0to help people who are in need. Later, he learned that\u00a0he didn’t always have to fight to take action<\/a>, and that was good, too.<\/p>\n Now let’s apply these standards of character to the\u00a0legislative\u00a0branch of our government.<\/p>\n They have been\u00a0faced with a concrete, identifiable\u00a0problem: people are shooting students\u00a0at schools.\u00a0Their only response has\u00a0been occasional tentative suggestions for increased gun control. Those suggestions are immediately defeated by people who are in favor of guns, people who offer no solutions.<\/p>\n