The scenes from Highland Park were horrifying. A high school marching band captured on a smartphone camera rounding a corner at the Independence Day parade, instruments blaring. Seconds later, gunshots and a stream of frightened onlookers running by. Parents putting one child in a dumpster and out of the way of the bullets before dashing off to find missing loved ones. An upended, empty stroller. A shocked police officer, his head in his hands.

It’s not enough.

Teachers are trained to elevate young minds, not to gun down people wielding assault weapons who burst into their classroom intent on mass murder.

Perhaps this is how it all ends — self-government, self-defense, self-control, liberty, unity, family. Perhaps the fate of the nation is to watch its soul die along with the at least 19 students and two adults shot to death Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.