Another shooting yesterday. Do we even notice anymore? Can evil be called a tragedy? Perhaps, but it’s many other things too. For awhile, I took part in gun safety protests, walking around NRA-supported businesses and politicians offices with my posters. My posters were never particularly eye-catching like so many, but they were useful to put in front of my face when the press was taking pictures. For professional reasons, I didn’t want to be in the newspapers. I hope those “professional reasons” weren’t cowardice. The gun safety groups have mostly fizzled, even though gun violence is getting worse. We feel hopeless, numb, helpless.
At least two, probably all three, branches of our government have been for sale for a long time. There’s no getting around the fact that the NRA has bought a huge chunk of our government. Congress people, some Presidents, even the Judiciary have been bought for the price of an AR-15. This is a weapon of mass destruction, meant for war, which is of course bad enough. But now we look the other way when it can be bought and used by any old Joe (not too many JoAnns). It can legally be bought by a kid before he can legally buy alcohol. The AR-15 and all mass shootings are the nadir of toxic masculinity, and a horrifying outlet for the murderous rage of the psychopath. We massacre our children at a rate unknown in the rest of the world. Why are all the “pro-life” people silent on this one? Perhaps because it’s a hell of a lot less taxing to be pro-birth rather than truly pro-life.
My daughter sent me a picture of a check made out to a legislator. However, where the amount would normally go was written “thoughts and prayers”.
This national, suppurating evil is born of greed and an ugly lust for power and violence. I suspect that if it is ever going to be addressed, it will begin with our young people.