What the serious fuck?
We have been living on the precipice of this tragedy every single day since Sandy Hook, and we will continue to live here each and every day until we decide to take action in this country. My kids or your kids could be next and do not think it won’t happen to you. We are so naively lulled into apathy between each of these indefensible acts. When this happens again, we cannot continue to act shocked. Let’s stop pretending this problem can’t be solved. EVERY OTHER NATION in the world has solved this problem. Our elected officials have accepted this as the cost of protecting a bullshit ‘right’, but the only thing being protected is the wealth and power of a few elected individuals who are too cowardly to admit their motives. Among all the outrage flying around social media, one post in particular has stuck with me. “If nothing was done after Sandy Hook, nothing will be done.” Twenty (20) little white children from well-to-do families were murdered at Sandy Hook, and the government did nothing to prevent the next mass murder despite an overwhelming majority of Americans in favor of reform. That is an entire classroom of children. My first grader’s entire classroom. Maybe yours. And if the most privileged in this nation could not appeal to the humanity of those ostensibly in positions to represent them, we should not hold out hope that the less privileged can do so. Therefore, the elected officials and every last American who voted for them continue to accept these massacres as part of the American dream.
How is this possible?
A majority of Americans agree to universal background checks (89%) and bans on assault rifles (81%). So why can’t we make that happen?! Ronald Brownstein from The Atlantic writes, “… because gun control is one of many issues in which majority opinion in the nation runs into the brick wall of a Senate rule—the filibuster—that provides a veto over national policy to a minority of the states, most of them small, largely rural, preponderantly white, and dominated by Republicans.”
We cannot forget – the system IS NOT broken. The system is operating exactly as designed.
I cannot fathom a single situation in which it makes any sense to sell an automatic riffle to a teenager (willing to listen to anyone who has a compelling case). I actually can’t think of a single situation in which anyone outside of the military needs an automatic rifle. Who is selling these weapons to babies?!? And what do they think is going to happen?!? How can we hold them accountable?
There’s a reason it’s called “common sense” gun reform. For those who feel the need to own a firearm, there are reasonable and safe ways for individuals to do so. I personally don’t understand why anyone a) finds killing animals for sport enjoyable or b) needs to defend themselves against… the boogie man(?), but I can set my judgements aside to allow those proclivities to persist. There are a million options between the the current, free-for-all gun laws and those that ‘impinge’ on one’s ‘second amendment right’. [Quick aside, rights are just fallible, man-made ideas, btw. There’s nothing divine or universal about ‘rights’ especially ones as old as those listed in the Second Amendment which were declared in an era when slavery reigned supreme (ahem – not a great look), women were considered property, and people thought disease was transmitted via hexes and spells… why have we (ok, most of us) ‘outgrown’ all of these concepts and yet we want to interpret gun rights in the most basic, literal sense? WTF?]
As you can probably tell, I’m oscillating between intense rage and extreme despair. I’m looking for someone, somewhere to tell me what I can do to make this stop. I’m signing petitions, calling representatives, and donating money – all of it feels useless. I’m not sure how we ban together to see the change we want to see. And while we fuck around looking at each other, the countdown until the next tragedy has begun….
P.S. For an extra kick in the pants, these people claim to be Pro-Life. The irony is not lost on me (or…anyone.)
UPDATE:
Must listens:
We Can Do Hard Things – How We’ll Save Our Kids from the Gun Lobby’s Greed with Shannon Watts (Founder of Mom’s Demand Action)
Codeswitch: Rethinking ‘safety’ in the wake of Uvalde
https://www.npr.org/2022/04/19/1093537308/rethinking-safety-in-the-wake-of-uvalde
Consider texting READY to 64433 to get involved in your local chapter of Moms Demand Action (one need not be a mom to get involved). We can drive change.
#powertoprivilege #courageousconversations #gunlawreform
-Jessica