Light that goes out

Revolvers are tricky things for young hands to deal with.

Rudyard Kipling

If Maisie had shot him, Dick wouldn't have become a war correspondent. If the accidental discharge of the revolver that the two orphans raised by Kipling had bought minutes before arriving at the beach that afternoon had ended up in the boy's face, he wouldn't have become a painter or visited Sudan years later, none of that. Revolvers are treacherous in the hands of young people, wrote the Indian in "The Light That Went Out." That's what I think when I learn that a 10-year-old boy shot his teacher and then killed himself in São Caetano do Sul.

We will try to understand, without success, to investigate in vain the reasons that lead a child to shoot themselves in the head, and we will arrive, as usual, at the conclusion that it is necessary to further restrict the sale of weapons in Brazil. That was our response to the massacre of 12 children in Realengo, remember? I usually view this proposal to review the disarmament referendum with resistance – reviewing a decision made only 6 years ago by the majority of the population (more than 60%) after each tragedy that occurs does not seem reasonable to me – but the incident at the Escola Municipal Professora Alcina Dantas Feijão got to me at a weak point.

I didn't think it was the end of the world – far from it – that we decided to allow the purchase of weapons in the country. I understand that public safety doesn't reach every corner of the country and that citizens have the right to defend themselves, but I've had only one concern since the referendum: that weapons acquired legally through the strict process imposed on those interested in arming themselves would fall into the hands of unprepared individuals – in the worst-case scenario, children.

The law should be enforced in the case of São Caetano do Sul, since David's father is likely to be held responsible for the crimes due to negligence, but perhaps the greatest burden of the 2005 decision is the possibility of a child gaining access to a weapon within their own home – and there was no one better prepared than the father, a municipal guard, to safeguard the revolver. When we went to the polls to vote, I could only think that, deep down, we were deliberating on this: the proximity we wanted a child to have to a weapon.

Was it video games, bullying, or a lack of God in his heart that led David to shoot his teacher and then hit himself in the head? It's cruel, but it doesn't matter. The fact is, the boy had a gun within reach, in the next room. Would the solution be to organize another referendum on disarmament? Maybe, but perhaps it's simply a matter of us ceasing to be children and taking responsibility for the consequences of our decisions.