President Trump stays on sidelines after shootings

Even the best salesman would struggle explaining away the reasons for the latest contradiction from the president of the United States.
He believes crime in Washington, D.C., is so out of control that 2,000 National Guard soldiers and federal agents need to keep residents and visitors safe. His order came eight days after teenagers attacked Edward Coristine, a member of Elon Musk’s federal government efficiency initiative, on a Washington street while trying to steal his car.
Yes, Washington and the nation have crime problems. Even so, Washington homicides, armed robberies and other violent offenses stood at a 30-year low before the president interceded. 
Also true, one violent crime continues increasing — not decreasing. It involves school and church shootings and other mass killings.
National statistics kept by public safety groups show the number of such incidents, and the number of people killed or injured in these shootings, have risen significantly in the past half century. Names like Columbine High School, Sandy Hook Elementary School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School now are household names.
Perry and Iowa City have experienced student and teacher murders. An Ames church saw two young members shot and killed.
There have been 1,400 school shootings In the U.S. in the past 25 years, according to National Institutes of Health research.
But unlike the president’s actions to deal with crime in the nation’s capital, there have been no executive orders from the president to deal with school and church safety. He has directed no emergency actions, issued no series of statements about this growing problem, nor encouraged any heightened public vigilance of mentally ill persons who might harm others.
Last week, the scourge of gun violence struck Minneapolis, when two grade-school children were fatally shot and 21 other students and adults were wounded during a school Mass at Annunciation Catholic Church.
The 350 students from the church school who survived the cascade of 116 rifle shots and three shotgun blasts were injured, nonetheless, by the trauma they experienced seeing classmates bloodied by a shooter intent on killing them.
To his credit, the president telephoned Minnesota’s governor with his condolences and issued a proclamation directing U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff out of respect for the victims. He wrote on social media, “The White House will continue to monitor this terrible situation. Please join me in praying for everyone involved.”
Beyond his thoughts and prayers, the president has not talked about any legislation that may be needed. He has been silent on policy changes to improve access to mental health services that experts believe are a key if society hopes to reduce mass shootings. Nor has the president spoken about other ways the federal government and the states can reverse this terrible trend line.
No executive orders address these subjects.
Contrast the president’s comparative silence with his aggressive comments about Washington crime, the attack on a federal employee, and the federal government’s intervention into what traditionally has been a local policing matter.

The president said the capital has been overrun by “bloodthirsty criminals” and “roving mobs” who are creating what he called a “crime epidemic.”
The president told reporters, “A young man, a beautiful, handsome guy got the hell knocked out of him. … He went through a bad situation, to put it mildly, and there’s too much of it. We’re going to do something about it.”
Although the president’s remarks after the Annunciation church shootings were tepid compared with his rhetoric about the federal worker’s beating, some young witnesses to the church shootings were not so restrained in their comments.
One of the most articulate witnesses was 10-year-old Weston Halsne, whose life was changed in the oh-so-brief time it took for the hail of gunshots. Weston was poised, thoughtful and reflective when he spoke with WCCO-TV’s Caroline Cummings (a former Iowa Capitol reporter).
“I was two seats away from the stained-glass windows,” Weston said. “The shots were like right next to me. I think I got like gunpowder on my neck.
“The first one, I was like, what was that? When I heard it again, I just ran under the pew and then I covered my head. My friend Victor saved me ‘cause he laid on top of me. But he got hit in the back. I was super scared for him, but I think now he’s OK.”
The anguish was shared by parents and staff at Annunciation Catholic School and by the doctors and nurses who treated the kids.
A friend from my newspaper days lives near the church and school. She wrote to friends, “Someone tried to commit mass murder of little children just blocks from my home. Of course I am not OK. And I shouldn’t be. This is not normal. And it shouldn’t be. How loud do we have to say it?”
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said in the hours after the shootings, “Don’t just say this is about thoughts and prayers right now. These kids were literally praying.”
No one expects instant solutions to school and church shootings or other mass killings. This crisis has been brewing for several decades.
But who wouldn’t like to see our president spend as much time focusing on the problem of school violence as he has spent thinking he can solve the unsolvable problem of crime by edict alone.
Americans are sickened by the senseless killing of children in schools and worshippers in churches. How many more children must die — kids like Fletcher Merkel, 8, and Harper Moyski, 10, whose lives were snuffed out last week in Minneapolis?
The president’s silence on this crisis reminds us of his callous comment a year ago after the school shooting in Perry: “We have to get over it. We have to move forward.”
Randy Evans can be reached at DMRevans2810@gmail.com.