Benefield: ‘Kind of numb to it’: SRJC, Sonoma State students lament mass shootings as a part of life

Luis Gutierrez is conflicted.

In the wake of yet another mass shooting, this time on the campus of Michigan State University, the Sonoma State University junior understands why people urge students like him to be prepared for the worst, to think about the possibility of a gunman on campus, to consider the unthinkable: What would he do? Where would he hide? How would he survive?

“They say you should be prepared,” he said.

He pauses.

“We shouldn’t be preparing for that, we should be preparing for an exam.”

In the latest incident in our national scourge, three people were murdered Monday on the campus of Michigan State. Five others were in critical condition.

Like Gutierrez and his classmates, they were going to school.

A simple act. A hopeful act. An act that represents a short lifetime of work and a vast future filled with dreams.

On Tuesday, we learned who was lost: Arielle Anderson, Alexandria “Alex” Verner and Brian Fraser.

On the same day we learned their names, we remembered another national tragedy. It’s been five years since a gunman killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida.

That tragedy (which occurred on the 10th anniversary of a shooting at Northern Illinois University that left five dead) felt like the beginning of a sea change. Students stood up, they marched, they called B.S. on our lack of action.

They continue to call out the National Rifle Association and politicians who are in its pocket.

And yet.

Gun violence continues its tragic drumbeat: Seven murdered in Half Moon Bay. Twelve murdered in Monterey Park. Six murdered in Goshen.

All occurred in California. All within eight days in January.

In December we marked 11 years since 20 children and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary School. In April we’ll remember the 13 killed at Columbine High School in 1999. In May it will be the 19 students and two teachers killed last year at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

There are so many more. Too many more. That is trauma in itself.

“It’s ‘Oh there’s another one.’ Which is so sad,” said SSU senior Anna Eisert. “I feel like we are desensitized.”

There have been more mass shootings, defined as an incident in which four or more people are shot, in the United States this year than days.

Think about that.

And think about this: Mass shootings get our attention, flood our social media feeds, spike our grief and lower our flags, but they do not reflect an additional truth, that gun violence devastates lives in communities and homes across this nation every day.

Flags aren’t lowered, press conferences aren’t had, but people are dying every day because we have too many guns and we have lawmakers who lack the courage to enact sensible gun laws.

We have lawmakers who act as if this were a joke, wearing assault rifle tie pins or making family Christmas cards with kids holding weapons of war, instead of working to keep those weapons off our streets and out of our classrooms.

It’s cheeky to some to show kids in holiday pajamas holding instruments of death.

But consider this: Firearms are the leading cause of death in children and youth 0 to 24 years of age in the United States.

And it doesn’t stop with death. Gun violence maims people, orphans children and devastates families.

Guns.

“They are also an important cause of injury with long-term physical and mental health consequences,” according to doctors and authors of a study published in November in Pediatrics.

Shame on those lawmakers. Shame on us.

“I feel like it’s hard for gun reform to happen when people in the Legislature are taking contributions from the NRA,” said SSU freshman Jillian Junqueiro.

It’s less about the hallowed Second Amendment and more about economics and politics that keeps lawmakers from standing up to the gun lobby and making this stop, said SSU junior Jason Arellano.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to politics and economics,” he said. “That’s the reason why they don’t want to stop selling these types of firearms.”

And so we are left with this: “It’s so normalized. I don’t get a sense of fear now,” he said.

Erina Corl said the reality of gun violence is a part of her daily life.

A student at Santa Rosa Junior College, she said Tuesday she feels safe on campus, but there are times, there are occasions, when she runs through the mental checklist.

“Looking where the exits are, where could I hide?” she said. “It enters your mind.”

She’s wasn’t the first person I talked to on Tuesday who maintains a similar checklist.

“You feel bad,” Corl said. “But you are just kind of numb to it. It’s just part of American living at this point.”

It’s just a part of American living at this point.

It wasn’t always this way.

“People didn’t have that years ago — people thinking about what exits to use, looking at buildings for what way to get out,” Jace Hassler, a sophomore at SRJC, said.

I share with Hassler the stat that we have had more mass shootings in the U.S. than days this year.

He’s not moved.

“I feel like we say that every year,” he said.

He’s probably right. And it’s heartbreaking.

“It’s part of living,” he said.

I asked Hassler if he’s mad. Mad that we are having this unending conversation, mad that my generation has done nothing to protect him, mad that we have done nothing to create demonstrable change.

“I’m not mad that we having this conversation,” he said. “I’m mad that it’s taking this long for this conversation to finish.”

You can reach Staff Columnist Kerry Benefield at 707-526-8671 or kerry.benefield@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @benefield.