NATION fired off what’s being reported as many as 70 shots in a matter of seconds,” he says. One of Schneider’s first calls was to the local sheriff. “He told me that he had seen two individuals who were dead at the scene and that there were other people being taken to the hospital,” he says. “We now know it was seven people murdered.… My heart is breaking for these families.” A number were Jewish, he notes, at least three of the seven. Schneider starts reciting their names, but stops, perhaps because it seemed beside the point. The victims who most gripped him were the parents of a two-year-old toddler, found wandering amid the carnage. “I was on CNN and I started to tell the story about Aiden McCarthy, the two-year-old who’s now an orphan, and I nearly lost it on camera and broke down afterward,” he says. “The adrenaline is starting to leave. I’ve been running on adrenaline for 48
hours and the emotions are starting to swell up,” he adds, sobbing. And then he composes himself, and, when asked to explain what happens next, he recites the menu of reforms Democrats have sought for decades. “These are weapons of war intended to kill as many people as efficiently and as quickly as possible,” he says. “They have no business in our communities or on our streets. We also have to address the mental health issues, the societal determinants of health. There are so many things that we need to address. But getting these assault weapons off the street should be first order.” But what was preoccupying Schneider was the community, his community, and what would happen to it in the wake of a shattered July 4. “The more we learn about the story, the more connections we will see to every aspect of who we are as a community,” he says.
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