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In response to this week’s Douglas High shooting, I’m not going to add a filter to my profile picture. I’m not going to post about sending my thoughts and prayers to the victims’ families and the survivors.
Just like I didn’t do it when 26 people were killed and another 20 were injured in the Sutherland Springs shooting.
Just like I didn’t do it when 58 people were gunned down and another 500+ were wounded at a concert in Las Vegas.
Just like I didn’t’ do it when 49 were killed and 58 were inured at the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Just like I didn’t when 20 first-graders and 6 adults were slaughtered in the Sandy Hook massacre.
See a pattern?
I’m not going to post a meaningless, impotent, and dare I say, a trendy post on social media. No. I’m going to take action. And I encourage you all to do the same.
Demand that there is outrage that these terrorists could commit such atrocities on American soil while sheltered by the 2nd Amendment.
Demand that your state legislators resist bills that make it easier for these weapons to be procured.
Demand stronger gun legislation that does not inhibit the Second Amendment, but rather prevents individuals guilty of domestic violence and other crimes from owning and procuring firearms.
Demand stronger legislation to ensure the proper storage of guns and penalties for those who fail to do so.
How many innocent lives have been lost to protect the 2nd Amendment (which was written before semi-automatic weapons were conceived.) How many innocent people need to die before change is enacted?
I remember hearing about the Columbine shooting when I was in college, and it was unfathomable that this would happen in our nation. Since then, we’ve heard of Sandy Hook, where children were gunned down in one of the places they should feel the most safe. Then there’s Virginia Tech, Colorado Springs, the Pulse shooting, Las Vegas, Sutherland Springs, Kentucky, and now the most recent shooting in Parkland.
But in all of this, the American populace doesn’t talk about guns. It’s never the appropriate time. It’s always “too soon”. But I have to ask… when is the appropriate time to talk about the warfare that America is waging among itself? When we can move past children being gunned down in their formative years? When we can get past people going to see a movie and dying? When we can get past people attending a music concert and not making it out alive? When is the appropriate time? Should we not use this time when our passion and outrage is at its strongest to make a better country for children?
There is a fire in a major building and fire code is re-evaluated. A terrorist is found with a bomb in his shoe and now we all have to go through stringent searches at the airport. In my local community, a mountain lion swoops up someone’s pet dog and people are up in arms about how to battle against such a tragedy.
An average of 96 people are killed by guns every day*.
But people focus on “guns don’t kill people. People kill people”.
We cannot give our thoughts and prayers to those who have been subjected to gun violence… That does nothing. If you’re outraged that innocent lives are be gunned down while watching a movie, that children would be slaughtered while at school, if you are enraged that attending a country music festival could equal being murdered…. Then I encourage you to stand up now.
I refuse to send my thoughts and prayers to shooting victims. Instead I’ll tell anyone who will listen that I’m sorry that our country has placed the right to stockpile weapons… to misappropriate guns our forefathers never thought imaginable when they wrote the second amendment… I’m sorry that those “rights” outweigh a safe life for the people and children of this nation. The reality to me is that not every American is responsible and/or secure enough to hold this right without regulation. I believe in background checks for both handguns and long guns. I believe that neither felons nor domestic abusers should be allowed to own guns. I believe that bump sticks and AR-15s are not needed by civilians.
18 school shootings in 44 days…. Something tells me that if state legislatures and the floor of Congress were being shot up at such a furious rate, lawmakers would be scuttling quick to stop this nonsense.
Senator Chris Murphy recently made a powerful statement, which consoles me a little bit.
I think the biggest disconnect for me is that aside from having reasonable gun legislation, I don’t know what the answer is. What do we do? The answer escapes me and keeps me awake at night.
What are your thoughts on this? How do we in-desensitize the American people to gun violence? How do we solve this problem?
