NO.
Do not honor the victims – dishonor the NRA!
“President Donald Trump quietly signed a bill into law Tuesday rolling back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people with mental illnesses to purchase a gun.”
Ali Vitali, NBC News – Feb 28, 2017
When Donald Trump revoked that regulation (above) he gave 75,000 Americans who have a history of mental illness, extreme enough for them to be documented in a national database, a pass to legally procure guns. That was two and a half years ago – so much more has happened since then, both at state and federal levels, to make purchasing guns easier and easier. Yet, we are shocked when a new mass murder is reported, again.
Look, even as I write this I remember my own childhood, where guns for hunting were standing in the corner of the garage or closet in all my friends’ homes – because that was a sport that many of my peers participated in. I was aware of the beginning of deer season…which is laughable to me now. That said, I also grew up in a place and time (through the beginning of junior high) where “shit” was the worst word I ever heard in school (and it was shocking). So even for this long-time urban dweller, I am aware of the anti-American fears that limiting gun procurement brings up for so many.
But I am also aware of the lack of consciousness that die-hard gun advocates bring to the table. The 2nd amendment allows for a well-armed militia, because there was no army to speak of at the time of its writing, and in order for this country to become – at all – we needed the people living in the then colonies to bring their own weapons to the fight. However, now the government hires people to take up the fight and arms them in the name of our continued existence and “freedom”. We haven’t actually needed to stock personal armories since the Civil War – so we need to reevaluate our dependence upon the language as it stands. (I know that’s a longer, far more complicated, conversation for another time.)
OK – so that’s enough of that tiny historical perspective. Take a moment to consider that:
- There are things happening in our American society that equate mass murder to power.
- There are people that make space for righteous hatred.
- There continues to be an Us v Them mentality throughout our society.
Individually or collectively – these points spur death sprees.
The reality is that our world is so complicated that there is no one answer that will protect innocent children, women and men from the surprise massacres that are common in our country today.
I had a to take a moment after I typed those two words, “surprise massacres”, because the phrase, although fitting, is breathtaking in its depth.
Children are slaughtered in their school rooms, congressmen are targeted and shot for their service in government, movie goers and music lovers find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time, shoppers too regularly pick a bad time to look for shoes or return curtains. Those are the ‘crimes’ that citizens are punished for in America – and nothing changes. Nothing. Changes. I’m so sorry to say, that is on us.
America, generally, is diverse…passionate…busy… distracted…trusting…ignorant – and most of us aren’t even aware of how to participate in our own government; Couldn’t name their US representative or senator, much less their state officials. So when 26 people were murdered in Newtown and 50 are murdered in Orlando and 59 murdered in Las Vegas and 17 murdered in Parkland and 27 in Southerland Springs and 11 in Pittsburgh and 275 shot to death in 2019, already – we get mad. Are you fucking kidding me? We get MAD?!
Thoughts and prayers will not bring back the nearly 2500 individuals that have been murdered since 2012 as part of mass killings across the United States – citizens murdered by citizens in groups of 4 or more – and we’re mad.
What is it about the drip, drip, drip of bodies that does not inspire strong, decisive action on the part of our government and its citizens? Only a few hundred more people than that stated total died on 9/11 – and for them we went to war (and stayed there)! But as long as we’re killing each other, no direct action is warranted, I suppose.
I just can’t with us. I just can’t.
