Lowering the American flag for the newly dead at school -- again

Sue Carlton, Tampa Bay Times Columnist

In a scene repeated at public buildings across the country, the American flag in front of the library outside my office window was lowered to half-staff this week.

This time, for 10 dead in Texas.

In February, the American flag was similarly half-staff after another high school shooting, this one closer to home in South Florida.

And so it goes. In this grim new normal, there's barely time to raise the flag again.

If you are tired of this rant, so am I. Really tired. I'm tired of reading stories about a kid who was supposed to be at his 17th birthday party last weekend, or the exchange student looking forward to her mother's cooking because she was about to go home, about ordinary kids who rode the bus and liked art class and were this close to summer vacation.

And about teachers who probably thought they were just going to work last Friday, not into a war zone.

It happens at a night club, at a church, in a school, in another school. Children get killed and nothing much changes. Are we getting numb to this?

Afterward, people remind each other that guns don't kill people. This had to be one of the most nonsensical statements ever uttered, but okay, let's be more precise: Access to guns by people who should not have access to guns kills people. Over and over.

Talk of sensible changes to our gun laws -- favored by most Americans, by the way -- gets drowned out by the false but very effective claim that They Are Coming For Your Second Amendment Rights. Whoever "They" are.

We talk about arming schools, except sometimes people were armed. We talk about hardening buildings into prisons. We have active shooter drills so everyone knows what to do -- except when there's nothing they can do.

We do not, however, make meaningful changes to help keep guns out of the hands of people who should not have them. We do not say ordinary citizens across this country should not have assault weapons. We don't do this even when the polls tell us it's something a lot of Americans support.

Even the question of what would it take to bring about real change has gotten old. If 6- and 7-year-olds shot to death at an elementary school doesn't work, what possibly could? The death of the loved one of someone considered more prominent and powerful than the families currently grieving, God forbid?

"Thoughts and prayers," has been uttered so many times afterward by NRA-supporting politicians it's pretty much just a bitter punch line. Maybe they're working on something better for next time.

And maybe kids are the best hope. Since the February school shooting in Florida, young people are making their voices heard -- loud enough that Gov. Rick Scott signed into law adjustments that include raising the gun-buying age to 21. Changed heart or calculated pivot in his run for the U.S. Senate, it's something, anyway.

Maybe the kids won't just sign up in passion-fueled voter registration drives. Maybe they'll actually vote. Maybe, eventually, politicians will be made uncomfortably aware these young people have some power to elect and reject them. Maybe some of those kids will even grow up to run for office themselves for the ones who can't.

In the meantime, I guess we lower the flag.