Image from Gun Violence Archive
Twenty-four people died from gun violence yesterday. You probably only heard about seven of them because once again children trying to learn something in school became victims of a heinous act of violence. I know people in Nashville who send their kids to school every day. I can’t imagine what it was like to get up this morning and even think about taking them today. An artist I follow posted this:
“Just saw a bunch of my friends on national news. So many of my friends kids were at the school shooting yesterday. One of my friend’s daughter was killed. My own daughter’s track coach was shot at. Had to bite my tongue yesterday because there’s just so much anger. Soooo much.” (Jeremy Cowart)
The trauma we face in this country every day because of gun violence is obscene. And it just keeps growing. As I was writing this another shooting occurred in Maryland where four people were injured - none killed, at least not that we know of yet. It’s March 28 and there have been 131 mass shootings (where four or more or shot) this year. Almost 10,000 people have been killed by a gun this year, including those who turned the gun on themselves. (Data from Gun Violence Archive)
“I don't know how else we are supposed to interpret the fact that a school shooting is mundane except to say that the United States sanctions the murders of its own children. It sacrifices children on the altar of a frankly bizarre interpretation of the second amendment.” (Chanda Prescod-Weinstein)
I’ve written about the second amendment before, you know the one:
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
This amendment to the constitution was ratified in 1791. Per a Washington Post article in 2006, “The typical firearms of the day were muskets and flintlock pistols. They could hold a single round at a time, and a skilled shooter could hope to get off three or possibly four rounds in a minute of firing. By all accounts they were not particularly accurate either.” The authors of this amendment could not have possibly imagined the death and destruction an AR-15 would do. We know all too well the damage just one of these can cause and most shooters tend to carry more than one.
It seems clear that nothing is going to change in this country, at least nothing on the federal level. Some states are taking action and putting stricter gun laws in place, but until we stop glorifying this kind of violence, until we (and by we I mean the Republican Party and some Democrats, too) stop bowing down to the power of the NRA, until we take the kind of action that nearly every other country in the world has taken to ban assault rifles - not all guns mind you, just assault rifles - until all that happens, the numbers will continue to rise and the trauma will continue.
But sure, let’s go ahead and have a whole congressional hearing about Tik Tok. That seems like an excellent use of everyone’s time. And sure, let’s enact laws banning drag queens and the teaching of Black history. And yes, let’s ban books, too, because why would we want people to learn something? All of these things seem so much more important than banning the assault rifles.
I’m tired, and I’m sure you are, too. Take care of yourself, take care of your family and your friends. Pray for peace, for hearts and minds to be open to change, for the victims of the violence, for those left behind. Pray for a better tomorrow.