I am numb. Numb to the latest school shooting in America. Which one? I could be talking about the hundreds of school shootings since Columbine. But the latest one in Santa Fe, Tx was just days ago. Ten people were murdered by a 17-year-old kid who walked into the school armed with his father’s shotgun and handgun, apparently wearing a Born To Kill tee-shirt, and ended the lives of nine children and one teacher.
I am numb but that does not mean I don’t feel deep sympathy for those who were slain while attending school, because I do. I feel pain and anguish but I have to protect and insulate myself from those feelings because it happens so frequently. I believe millions of my fellow Americans feel the same way because in the past week the Santa Fe shooting was but one of three in America yet, the other two barely made a blip on our collective radar.
Tapping into the horror producing feelings takes a toll on each of us, especially when nothing is ever done to prevent the next horrible shooting in America. We know all too well the predictable response from our political leaders. They start by offering “thoughts and prayers”, sidestep or flat-out rebuff calls for Gun Control, either by saying “now’s not the time to talk about such things” or the truly rabid NRA puppets tell us the answer is “more guns.” More guns in the classrooms, more guns in the supermarkets, more guns in your car, more guns in Starbucks, more guns at the daycare center. How many more guns do we need in this country to make us safer. We already have over 300 million damn guns in private hands, vastly more per capita than any other country not involved in civil war. How many more guns will it take to make us safer?
The truth is more guns do not make us safer. More guns kill more people. Virtually every state with loose gun laws have higher rates of gun related violence than those with stricter laws. Additionally, countries with fewer guns per capita typically have the fewest murders per capita. Do the research it’s there.
I am numb but I’m still outraged. Outraged enough to vote against any politician who takes NRA money. To vote out any politician who is not for common sense answers to reduce gun violence. I’m not going to outline what those measures are. I’ve talked about some in a previous article and frankly, I don’t consider myself an expert on what solutions work and which don’t. What I want are politicians who are willing to back research into the problems of gun violence. Politicians who have the courage to stand up to the NRA and say “enough!”.
Our children are being murdered in their schools and over ten thousand more people will be murdered across this country over the course of this year. It truly has to stop. Vote them out. Vote every single one of them out.
I am certain this article will raise the blood of every gun zealot out there. Too bad. I don’t care. I’ve heard every single one of your NRA scripted arguments against curbing gun violence and frankly not a single one of them carries the weight of a dead child.
Children deserve our love, our empathy, our compassion, our support but most importantly, children deserve the right to live without bullets ripping through their flesh and bleeding out in a classroom, or in a house, or out in a street.
This November vote them out.
Shayne Daley is an ex military MP, who has read too much Hemingway, and is a proud supporter of the Democratic Party. He eats, drinks, writes, and likes to go fishing.