Whom do you blame for shootings?

1. Criminals

2. Guns

This isn’t just an ideological test. It’s a sanity test. But of course, all sorts of alternative answers are possible. 

One very specific by-product of the pandemic — the wearing of masks — played a role in ratcheting up tensions that often led to violence, said Terrance Staley, program coordinator for the Alliance for Concerned Men, a long-standing community group that works to de-escalate conflicts in the Black community in Washington, D.C.

“Those context cues are not visible with masks, so you don’t know who’s up on you until they’re right there,” said Staley. “In neighborhoods with a lack of safety, that sort of fear leads to a lot of people carrying guns.”

I can understand the reasoning here, but that just leads us back to the fact that gun violence is caused by criminals. Making it more difficult for criminals to spot each other can understandably ramp up tensions in the game of cat and mouse, or thug and thug, already being waged. 

The simpler drive-by shootings of yesterday have spread onto social media, erupting into feuds, and with fewer of the usual collision points available, there have been fewer club shootings, and more firefights in residential areas. Masks probably do complicate the situation. And if we’re going to blame inanimate objects for shootings, it’s as easy to blame masks as it is to blame guns. Ban the masks then.