The sheer evil of a violent attack or mass shooting, such as occurred at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, Wisconsin, earlier this week, elicits a number of appropriate responses. We rightly mourn the victims and marvel incredulously that a second grade teacher made the 9-1-1 call. We grieve with and for parents who had no sense that they would lose a child just weeks before Christmas. We wonder how anyone, especially a fifteen-year-old girl, could harbor such hate and hopelessness. 

There are also inappropriate, albeit understandable, reactions. When people are afraid, they often either lash out against those they perceive as their “enemies” on the “other side,” or they look for something, anything, to fix what it is they fear. Both reactions have been on full display since Monday. 

“We need action, legislation and laws to make sure that guns don’t get into the hands of people who don’t have them,” one Madison resident told CNN. “It is unacceptable that we are unable to protect our children from this scourge of gun violence,” President Biden said in a statement. “We need Congress to act. Now.” 

The cry to “do something” is not uncommon at times like this. “Do something” is, in fact, a cry for help. However, it is not a strategy or tactic. Doing “something” isn’t helpful if that something is wrong, mistaken, or irrelevant. In fact, doing “something” could make matters worse.  

We must know what to do, and that requires being clear on what the problem is, what the solution is, and who is able to accomplish the something (or somethings) that need to be done. Perhaps the only thing that is clear in every debate that follows shootings and violent outbursts is that we’re not clear about any of these things. 

The demand to “do something” is almost always addressed to or claimed by the government. That assumes that it is within the power of the President, the governor, or Congress to fix what has gone wrong.