Why we can’t get anything done on gun reform

The phone rang early Wednesday afternoon and I immediately recognized the number. I removed the phone from its cradle and heard the anticipated and dreaded request. It was an all too frequent reachout from CNN Management requesting I pack my bags and make yet another trip to the scene of an American slaughter; this time inside the freshman building at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

My assignment was to travel to the location and attempt to provide some type of analytical response to, or a “clinical diagnosis” of what had just taken place on the typically placid and peaceful school grounds of one of America’s safest cities.

{mosads}I was to provide a law enforcement perspective on another unspeakable tragedy. I was to attempt to make sense of it.

Twenty-five years in the FBI — much of it spent in the tactical resolution and crisis response realms — is what has programmed me to accept this peripatetic existence, to drop what I am doing at a moment’s notice, and move quickly towards the site of a critical incident.

But I no longer have the awesome responsibility mitigating disastrous events. I am tasked only to scrutinize for the viewer and relate to my experiences; to help provide clarity and context.

Full disclosure — in times like these, I struggle to make sense of the incomprehensible.

Why do we find ourselves at this familiar intersection of ideologies every time one of these far too frequent mass shootings take place?

I can’t help but be saddened by a seemingly endless cycle of denial, finger-pointing, cowardice, and lack of commitment to solve anything.

From the right comes the predictable fear-mongering about national gun registries and unwillingness to rethink the sacrosanct Second Amendment.

It matters not if you are a conservative gun owner and spent your life serving in the military and in the FBI as I have, dare to touch that third rail of policy issues as I did in the wake of this horrific event, and Breitbart News and their acolytes will mock you for your apparent temerity.

Even as you patiently explain the history related to human combat and warfare, and provide historical context for the inventions of gunpowder and guns, you will be shouted down by special interest groups.

It appears a fool’s errand to attempt to apply context to the Founding Fathers motives and their comprehension of late-eighteenth century weaponry and emergent threats. The reflexive response you face is from trolls and bots – not those earnestly seeking solutions.

And from the left you’ll encounter equally disingenuous arguments and specious assertions. Let’s call it what it is — nakedly political opportunism.

Hear the shrill cries for the scalps of politicians who received campaign donations from the NRA. And smears of “blood on your hands” becomes acceptable debate, de rigueur in the moment.

Accept campaign monies from the NRA and you are “complicit” in the depraved actions of a nineteen year old with mental issues who incomprehensibly was legally able to procure ten long weapons in a one year period.

And if the NRA is the convenient bogeyman in this instance, what not of the same hurled accusations about Planned Parenthood?

This entity is publicly funded and sanctions abortions — which many Christian conservatives view as its own “bloody business.”

And so we retreat once again to our intractable opposite-ends positions, satisfied that our side is on the right side of history.

Look, there were innumerable missed signs that would have led a reasonable person to sense Cruz’s propensity to create so much carnage. Even the typically stout and efficient FBI missed an actionable lead that resulted in the FBI director releasing a painful statement that admitted the grievous error and vowed to get to the crux of the system failure.

So, yes, there’s enough abundant blame to go around. But it won’t bring back one of the precious lives snuffed out far too soon on school property in Parkland, Florida.

Part of it is the visceral recoiling that occurs when many in America hear the words gun and control in the same sentence. And let’s admit it — throughout America’s history, polemicists have used language as the medium to wage a different kind of warfare.

The abortion debate has become “the fight for women’s reproductive rights.”

Racial quotas morphed into “affirmative action,” and now more benignly — “diversity.”

And global warming became “climate change.”

So, allow me to offer my own anodyne solution to the kryptonite that is the discussion of gun control — stick to gun reform. While this might appear a banal argument, it is so much more than just selective word choice.

It’s the difference between shutting down debate and moving folks forward off of stubborn positions and helping them meet folks who will then promise to tone down the vituperative rhetoric.

And now is the moment to make this happen. We’ve had so much tragedy in such a short span of time.

And just a few days ago, David French, writing for the National Review provided his own proffered solutions to the mass shooting epidemic.

We can’t bring back all of the innocent lives lost to evil and sick human beings intent on murderous activities, who happen to find access to assault weapons.

This column wasn’t about fleshing out the myriad ways that are available to us, but instead, just a reminder to us all that we have a solemn duty and an obligation as citizens of this great nation to civilly discuss possible solutions.

The Second Amendment and the availability of weapons in the United States is not the single driving factor in this quest for solutions. But it’s a signature piece of the discussion. And the fatalism inherent in hand-wringing and pretending there’s nothing we can do is not acceptable.

Let’s find common ground on gun reform now before it is too late.

James A. Gagliano is a CNN law enforcement analyst and retired FBI supervisory special agent. He also serves as an adjunct assistant professor at St. John’s University and is a leadership consultant at the Thayer Leader Development Group (TLDG) at his alma mater, the United States Military Academy at West Point. Follow him on Twitter @JamesAGagliano.