It was in the months after Sandy Hook (2012) when I realized that legislators in this country would never do anything to enact meaningful gun control in the United States. If a gunman can walk into an elementary school and kill babies and it doesn't light a fire under the asses of legislators, nothing ever will.
So here we are almost five years later and nothing has changed. Over fifty people died at the hands of a deranged gunman on Sunday night in Las Vegas.
In a week or so everyone will move on to the next news story and forget about Vegas. Just as they did with Pulse. And Virgina Tech. And Sandy Hook. And San Bernadino. And Fort Hood. And all of the others.
And these are just the shootings that make the news.
Legislators (and many Americans) will continue to hide behind the second amendment and will sleep well at night because "it was an illegally obtained weapon" or "they modified the weapon" or "they passed the background check" or "they slipped through the cracks" or whatever garbage they tell themselves.
I've seen so many saying that they're praying for the victims of Las Vegas. Now is not the time for praying. Now is the time for action. Now is the time pass common-sense gun control. Now is the time to make it harder for criminals, those accused of domestic violence or with a restraining order against them to obtain or possess a gun. Honor their memory by taking steps to solve the problem.
This is not ok. Yet nothing will change. Again.
Well said. Sadly.
ReplyDeleteHere in New Zealand we are once again shaking our heads in disbelief. We just don't understand it either.
I don't care how many times it happens, I will never understand. And that is sad.
DeleteI completely agree with you.
ReplyDeleteRosanna Cash just called on all country music musicians on condone the NRA (https://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/10/03/opinion/rosanne-cash-country-musicians-nra.html?referer=https://www.google.com/). She's already getting hate mail. But it's time the people most of those carrying guns look up to speak out. We need to make getting ahold of a gun a hell of a lot harder than it currently is. The only way to do that is to shift the conversation, having those who are looked up to in this community actively calling for change.
I finally got around to reading that op ed. Love it!
DeleteAnd I so agree. People with a platform speaking out is so important.
Hate to say it but we are at least a a year and a half away from any positive change in this country and that's only if the dems can pull it together long enough to win back any meaningful power and lord knows they haven't been good at that in the past. The republicans in the house are literally going to do nothing and even if both houses manage to pull it together there is no way this stupid president is going to back them because he's not even a person, he's just that internet troll meme brought to life.
ReplyDeleteI don't disagree with anything you said!
DeleteYes I absolutely agree. When people try to bring up gun control though, it seems like the response is, "oh now isn't the time". But when IS the time?! Something needs to change.
ReplyDeleteThere is never a time. And "pry my gun from my cold, dead hands" is so deeply ingrained into American culture that I don't know if there will ever be substantial change in my lifetime.
DeleteSo heartbreakingly true. It's deplorable that money outweighs the value of human life. Julio, who grew up in a gun culture, in a relatively lawless land on the outskirts of war torn El Salvador where he learned how to fire a gun at age 12 or 13 and boys would often carry guns by around age 15, is so disgusted with the gun state of things in this country. He pointed out that no one needs any weapon that fast and powerful, not even a soldier.
ReplyDeleteI so agree with everything. And someone like Julio who has lived through some of what he's lived through would know.
DeleteI'm afraid I agree with you re: Sandy Hook being the tipping point re: gun control in the U.S.... if nothing happened after that, I have no real hope that it ever will. :( I'm not saying that it's perfect here in Canada (because it's not), but we do have certain (I think reasonable) controls here and the numbers of gun deaths just do not compare, even when adjusted for population. I just cannot fathom why one person should be able to amass such a huge arsenal, nevermind guns that can fire off that many rounds without stopping. Nobody (with the possible exception of the police & the military) really needs that kind of firepower.
ReplyDeleteMy cousin's wife was at a conference at the Bellagio in Vegas when the shooting happened... I understand the two hotels are not close together, but that's still too close, IMHO. And my cousin was left to explain things to their two kids, ages 5 & 10. :(
I'm with you, yes. And jeezum, the Sandy Hook one drives me crazy that there's not significant change after that. It should also be IMPOSSIBLE for civilians to get their hands on military grade automatic weapons with massive firing speed, either on their own or those modified ones like the one this person used. I don't understand that at all. Have your weapon for hunting, or for protecting your home, but you don't need a gun capable of mowing down the walking dead. You don't shoot a deer with one of those. And it makes it way too easy for people to kill a LOT of people in a very short period of time. This week coming up is Safety Week at school, and so we get to talk about and practice what we would do if a shooter came into the building. I hate that I went into teaching, yet I basically train to help my students (and hopefully me too) survive a shooting attack. The world is totally upside down.
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