After gun massacre, Charlotte is now ‘one of those cities’

OPINION — CHARLOTTE, N.C. — “Now we’re one of those schools.” That’s what a  University of North Carolina student, in more sadness than anger, told a local radio station[1] after a gunman killed two and wounded four others on her campus on Tuesday. And now Charlotte, a city already experiencing a spike in homicides[2], is “one of those cities.”In the city and state, there is shock, plus questions. A suspect[3] is in custody, but that doesn’t provide answers about why it happened and what can be done to keep it from happening again.That this latest incident did not make it to the top spot in many national news outlets speaks to how commonplace such incidents have become and how frustrated many citizens are. Is the answer more mental health resources, more “good guys with guns,” more regulations and background checks, or something else?Against this backdrop, the National Rifle Association is undergoing shakeups of its own, with warring leaders (chief executive Wayne LaPierre has won that fight with former president Oliver North), a sprawling mission that now includes NRATV taking stands on issues such as immigration and race as often as guns, and a looming investigation of its finances and nonprofit status by the New York attorney general.But despite that, expect its GOP politicking and power plays to remain, as the presence of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence[4] as speakers at the NRA’s recent annual meeting makes clear. The organization’s new president, Carolyn Meadows, lives in Georgia’s 6th District, where Democrat Lucy McBath[5] won in 2018 with a campaign that included support of some gun control measures, and Meadows has promised to support McBath’s opponent.As usual, Americans looking for reassurance, or at least a discussion and some compromise, won’t get very much of either in a debate that will only grow more

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