It’s more newsworthy when America doesn’t have a mass shooting

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Half Moon Bay. Monterey Park. Chicago. Robinsonville. Baton Rouge. Shreveport. Houston. Fort Pierce. Goshen. Rockford. That’s not even all of them in the past week.

It’s so frequent we are numb to it. Maybe that’s why most of America continues to do nothing?

Ideas and Debate, Not Violence

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On Friday, a man broke into the home of Nancy Pelosi and assaulted her 82 year old husband with a hammer. The assailant has been posting Conspiracy theories about the Big Lie, COVID vaccines, and much more. During the attack, he repeatedly yelled, “Where’s Nancy.” It’s easy to infer he planned to assault the Speaker of the House, second in line to the Presidency of the United States.

While few will say the assault is a good thing, there are several politicians who immediately jumped to blaming Nancy Pelosi. Some gleefully conflating the crime to her politics.

We’ve seen the insurrection and assault on the Capitol. We’ve heard the Q Anon crap about hanging politicians. We’ve had a Congressional softball game shot up. We’ve had a plot to kidnap a Governor.

When is the violence enough? Politics is a debate of ideas, thoughts, and policies. At least it should be. But violence seems somehow imbued in the American DNA.

Mark my words: someone will soon be selling t-shirts reading, “Where’s Nancy?”

If you gleefully celebrate any aspect of this assault, look deep in the mirror, my friends, because something inside you is broken.

Enough with the hate. We can disagree on politics without allowing or encouraging the violence.

After all, in the end we’re supposed to be on the same team, right?

It’s an addiction

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Since Uvalde, there have been 33 mass shootings in the US, with a mass shooting defined as 4 or more shooting victims.

157 days into 2022, the US has seen 246 mass shootings; more than one per day.

There were almost 20 million guns sold legally in America in 2021.

America clearly has a problem, and this addiction to guns and violence is not going away any time soon.

Leaked Republican memos tell the GOP party members and pundits to, “ignore guns, talk inflation.” They offer no solutions. Just telling people to buy more guns and more hardened doors. Apparently that’s their only answer to protect schools, churches, grocery stores, hospitals, medical clinics, parties, private homes, etc., where these mass shootings keep happening and happening. They expect the furor to die down and people to move on.

Let’s not let them ignore the problem.

Sane Gun Laws or Guns Everywhere?

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With each mass shooting there’s an outcry for more gun control. And an inevitable backlash from those who stubbornly oppose any actions. Instead, many say we need MORE guns.

Ted Cruz called for more armed guards in schools. More “hardened targets.”

Of course they won’t research the effects that might have. In fact, some research shows, “armed guards were not associated with significant reduction in rates of injuries; in fact, controlling for the aforementioned factors of location and school characteristics, the rate of deaths was 2.83 times greater in schools with an armed guard present.”

https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2776515

Some politicians think it will hit a point there are so many shootings the people will rise up and demand gun control. But instead we get more stalling for any research or changes, and more guns in more places. Which only benefits the gun makers. And paints an awful picture of the future.

Want to do something? Contact your Senators and tell them to pass H.R. 8- Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021 and H.R. 1446 - Enhanced Background Checks Act of 2021.

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