Parents who lost a child in the shooting at an elementary school in Texas on Tuesday are obviously in tragic mourning. To this will be added other difficult elements to live with, if we rely on what happened during other similar events such as Sandy Hook.
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Journalist Elizabeth Williamson wrote a book about the Sandy Hook shooting, where 28 people (including 20 children) lost their lives in 2012. She spoke with several people who lost a child there in the years that followed, and identified in an episode of the podcast The Daily three phenomena that are likely to add another layer to the horror experienced by the parents of the victims of this week’s shooting. Here they are.
1. The loss of control over their history
One of the things reported by all the relatives and loved ones of victims that Ms Williamson has spoken to is a feeling of total loss of control over their story and that of their loved ones.
“They see them being blown up in the media, they lose control over the response to the tragedy, and they’re very sensitive to that,” she said.
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Media attention is at its height during the mass shootings.
The father of one of the children who died at Sandy Hook described the situation to him as “being a spectator of your own tragedy”. “There is media coverage, endless discussions, the “thoughts and prayers“that politicians send out in tweets or statements, and you feel like you’re watching it all unfold,” Ms. Williamson paraphrases him.
And in the early stages, amidst all the hype, you have to manage to do the grim job of planning a funeral for your child.
Parents almost automatically become public figures, with no space to mourn, to make sense of this tragedy as best they can.
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2. Instrumentalization by political lobbies
Moreover, speaking of public figures, the relatives of the victims of the shootings must necessarily want to fight to better regulate the possession of firearms, right?
This idea may sound intuitively true, but…it doesn’t necessarily have to be. And assuming that can hurt them.
“Families have to ask themselves: do we want to go to Washington to lobby for better legislation? Do we want to be part of this debate, or avoid to protect our privacy and sanity? Do we prefer to withdraw from this debate? Are we in favor of the measures that are proposed or not? she raises.
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“There was a feeling for some that the families of Sandy Hook were a monolith, all in favor of this or that measure, when in reality they had a very wide range of views,” reports the writer, adding that some had found it burdensome for people to immediately assume that they were allies of such and such a cause.
AFP
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy makes a speech in support of gun control outside the White House two days after the shooting in Texas.
Especially since all these political struggle efforts may seem futile. “After each of the mass shootings – but especially those involving children’s schools – there is a huge debate surrounding new gun laws. It lasts for a while and then it dies out without any progress having been made, ”summarizes Ms. Williamson.
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3. Dealing with conspiracy theories
After the Sandy Hook shootings, conspiracy theories emerged claiming the event didn’t actually happen, that it was a staged actor aimed at tightening gun control.
Since then, it’s happened in almost every high-profile shooting.
“The killing of children in a mass shooting is such a shock and a strong argument for the legislation that people who are against it really find it a threat to their position. So for the far-right segment of this group, denying it happened, spreading false information, or blaming the feds for organizing it is a way to fight new legislation,” Williamson said.
“As incredible as it sounds to us, enough people are going to buy into this theory that families will have to endure harassment from people who will try to contact them on social media, find out where they live and try to call them, to deny that they lost people and to accuse them, by naming their name, of being actors in a conspiracy.
“I would be really surprised if that didn’t happen to those parents in Texas.”
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Glimmer of hope: This kind of conspiracy theory may be circulating less easily now. The families of the Sandy Hook victims are suing Alex Jones, a conspiracy theorist who circulated a lot of misinformation about the event, for defamation.
The large sums at stake could make some think before embarking on a campaign of its kind, raises Ms. Williamson.
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The full episode is available on major streaming platforms as well as on the New York Times. The book written by Elizabeth Williamson is called Sandy Hook: An American Tragedy and the Battle for Truth.
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