The Time Is Now!

They said it again…

They said the same thing yesterday…

They said that the days immediately following a mass murder such as the one that occurred in Newtown, Connecticut are not the time to debate gun control.  They said this is a time better spent on mourning and reflection and healing.

They said the same thing after Columbine. 

They said it again after Virginia Tech…and Tucson…and Aurora…

They said it again just a few days ago after Happy Valley, Oregon…

They say it every time…yet nothing ever changes.

If the aftermath of the senseless massacre of twenty 6-10 year olds is not the appropriate time to talk about gun control…then when in God’s name is?

If not now…when?

We were shocked and saddened by the loss of lives so young.  We shook our heads as we heard the media talk about post traumatic stress disorder and grief counseling for the young survivors.  And then we watched in horror as a reporter jammed her microphone into the face of a 7 year old survivor while she asked him to recount for the viewers the details of the terror he had just experienced.

Today the massacre at Newtown, CT is the front page story in every newspaper in America, and every news channel is revisiting  the horror that enveloped the K-4 graders in this quiet bedroom community.  But as we watch the nation mourn we are reminded that in Brooklyn and Chicago and Detroit and the 9^th Ward of New Orleans, millions of minority K-4 graders live with the fear and pain and horror of gun violence each and every day.  Yet for some reason their stories fail to capture our attention.   

-There are roughly 310 million non-military firearms in the hands of US citizens.

-There are roughly 312 million US citizens.

-40% of the firearms purchased legally in this country are acquired without a background check.

-A domestic violence situation is 43 times more likely to end up in a fatality if there is a firearm in the home.

-30 US citizens die as a result of gunshot wounds each day….11, 000 per year.  That is the equivalent of commercial airliner crashing to the earth and killing all aboard each and every week.  If a commercial airliner crashed to the earth each and every week would we not do something to stop it from happening again?

We vilify the terrorists who murdered 3,000 of us on that clear September day.  We start two wars to bring them to justice.  Yet three times that number dies at the hands of our own gun wielding citizens each year.  But we do nothing.    

“We are a nation of laws.”  One need only consider our use of water boarding, rendition and “enhanced interrogation techniques” to understand the fallacy in that statement.  What we are in fact is a nation of cowboys held hostage by the NRA…a nation where far too many people use the power of a gun to compensate for the myriad of inadequacies coursing through their veins.  And because so many of us use guns as a spinal replacement we are loath to strengthen gun control laws that do very little to keep us safe.

The NRA is king and the politicians do its bidding.  The barrel of Adam Lanza’s Glock wasn’t even cold when the NRA began threatening us not to use Newtown as an  opportunity to screw with their right to own a gun.  The NRA is good at citing the Constitution.  They like to impress we uneducated masses with their unlimited knowledge of the “Founders” intentions when they gave us the right to bear arms.  Somehow we doubt that the founders considered the possibility of mentally unstable individuals massacring seven year olds huddled in a classroom.

A tearful president offered the nation’s condolences to the families of those who were lost and the survivors whose loss is yet to come.   It was the fourth time in his presidency that he has had to give such a speech. 

He said that “our country has been through this too many times…And we are going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics.”  We were glad to hear the president utter those words because it is only through presidential leadership that change will occur.

This senseless carnage must stop.  It is time for the country to stand up to the NRA.  Because those of us that abhor gun violence have rights as well.  We have the right to send our kids to school without fear that they will murdered while practicing their ABC’s.  We have the right to walk through a mall without fear for our lives.  We have the right to go to a movie without keeping one eye on the exit door.

Twenty children were murdered yesterday.  If this isn’t the time to talk about gun control then such a time will never come.

And the slaughter will continue.