We Know Why

We know that the problem here is angry, extremist, racist, disaffected white men with easy access to military-grade assault weapons and ammunition.

We know that the president fosters disaffection and racism for his own political gains. When he says things like “hate has no place in our country” we know that he is the hater-in-chief who stokes this kind of behavior even as the GOP and mainstream media give this vile man a pass.

Do we know that our children are afraid?  Do we know that the rest of the world sees very clearly that we must regulate weapons?  Do we care?  Thoughts and prayers without actions will not save us from ourselves.  Years after Sandy Hook, we still wring our hands and ask why.

We know why.  The only thing we don’t know is why we lack the will to save ourselves.

I Live in Hope

The violence of this week has been unsettling and demoralizing.  Just when I feel our nation may be able to make progress, we seem to take violent steps backward.  I’m at a loss.  

My world view has always been to live in hope.  I know of no other way forward.  But a week like this one can make it hard to find that hope.

For me, nature’s unrestrained beauty is restorative.    So I visit familiar trails and search for hope, fragile and weary though it is.

If I look long enough, it is there.  And so I live in hope.

Aren’t We Better Than This?

I know I am not the only person in the nation who opens her computer to news of yet another mass shooting in America and asks herself when we will try to find solutions to the terrifying cycle of gun violence in which we seem to have trapped ourselves.  We are a violent society, a fact that we don’t seem inclined to discuss.  There is no easy solution to the problem of gun violence and mass shootings, a fact we do acknowledge before we move on, hoping that the most recent shooting will the last.  Many of us seem to realize this is magical thinking.  We hope that the most recent shooting will inspire our leaders to take political action.  When nothing but moments of silence and offers to pray for the victims and the first responders materialize, we sigh and move on.

How many of us sigh and move on, just a little more afraid of the nation we have become?  The leaders of this nation and our states didn’t come to power in a vacuum; we chose them.  This is our nation and this problem belongs to all of us.  It’s time we took action.

First of all, we must recognize the fact that while mass shootings attract the most attention, seemingly indiscriminate gun violence kills people every day in America.  On average, 88 people die from gun violence each day the sun rises in this nation.

Second of all, let’s acknowledge that the guns are already out there.  Most of the guns used in high profile mass shootings are legally owned.  Any action we take will not be an immediate, magical solution.  It must be the first in a series of policy adjustments that will begin the process of reducing the amount of guns in the hands of our fellow citizens.   The task at hand might seem overwhelming but we can't continue to do nothing.

There is action we can take.  Public opinion polls show consistent and increasing support for expanded background checks for prospective gun owners.  There is growing support for repeal of a Congressional prohibition on the collection of social science data and research on gun violence.  Read more about that here.  Strengthened background checks and quality data on gun violence will not immediately stop gun violence or mass shootings.  But they are a step in the right direction at a time when mass shootings are on the rise.  If you want to know additional action we must take, you'll find that list here.

We must not accept the status quo.  Contact your state legislators, your governor, and your members of Congress and tell them you want action against gun violence.  Ask them to sponsor and support legislation to require more vigorous background checks.  Tell Congress they must support NIH and CDC research on gun violence.  Hand-wringing and prayers are not enough; we must be better than this.

Haven't We Had Enough?

In the aftermath of the Colorado "Batman" shooting, I wrote a blog posting urging that yes, it's time to politicize this horrible event in the hopes that we can engage in some gun control policies that might help us to curb the violence.  I wasn't the only person to make this suggestion, of course, but it should be noted that our plea fell on the usual deaf ears.  Which is not to say that we don't have an established problem with mass shootings in this nation.  As this Mother Jones article ably proves, this nation has a problem.  It's made worse by our unwillingness to take action.

Earlier this month, when Bob Costas had the temerity to suggest that easy-access to guns might have contributed to the violent shooting by Kansas City Chiefs linemen Jovan Belcher, a furor ensued.  How dare he politicize a tragedy?  Sunday Night football halftime isn't the time to discuss gun control, critics shouted.  I don't happen to agree, of course.  I think we are long-overdue for a discussion about guns and violence in our nation.  But I had resigned myself to the fact that changes were unlikely.  Now I'm ashamed.  If people like me don't demand change, who will?  

Less then two weeks later, 26 people, 20 of them school children, are dead at a school in Connecticut.  When mass shootings happen, I think about the victims and their families. As a teacher and a mother, this time around, I'm overwhelmed.  Tears and hand-wringing are not enough.  How do we absorb and move on from a tragedy like this?  I lay in bed last night, sure in the knowledge that my own son was safe for the evening, and feeling acute misery for the parents who don't get to make that assumption any more.  What has gone wrong in our nation?

This morning, I'm not just filled with sadness about the tragedy.  Now I'm red-hot mad.  As news of the Connecticut shooting filled my e-mail and consumed the headline of the NY Times yesterday afternoon, I sat in a class with a room full of 17 year olds taking a test.  As they quietly filled pages with their thoughts and ideas and, dare I say, their brilliance, I was ashamed of the world we are handing them.

It is time to take action.  If it were up to me, we'd amend the Constitution to change the second amendment: Individuals don't need to own weapons and we should collect them all.  I would permit hunters to keep their rifles at established hunt clubs where gun safety is the rule of order.  It's not up to me, of course.  But these problems aren't going away and we can certainly agree on some real changes in our laws and our policies.

1.  Rigorous gun registration laws, longer purchase waiting periods, and detailed background checks in every state, at every venue, including private gun sales and gun shows.

2.  An end to private ownership of certain types of guns: no assault weapons, no semi-automatic weapons.  None.  

3.  If we decide we will continue to permit private ownership of guns, then let's require gun owners to attend gun safety classes and regularly certify that their guns are being safely stored.

4.  Ban internet and by-mail sale of ammunition. Limit ammo sales at gun shops; regulate the kinds of ammunition available for purchase and set a fixed limit on those purchases.  

5.  Let's agree that we need quality mental health help more readily available in this nation.  Let's remove the stigma from getting help, and let's commit to our community obligations on this front.  This will require money and resources and yes, we can afford both, largely because the alternative has cost far too many lives.

Tell your members of Congress they must act now.  Don't know who your Senators and Representatives are?  Find out here.  Check Open Secrets to see if those members received campaign funds from the NRA in 2012.  Join the Brady Campaign's "We are better than this movement" and combat the power of the NRA.  

Make this issue your priority.  Go to a rally.  Vote only for officials who will take action.  Tell President Obama that he has your support for changes to our laws.  He said yesterday that, "these neighborhoods are our neighborhoods and these children are our children. And we’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics."  I agree.  For the love of God and our children, let's make sure that we mean it.

Lessons Repeated

The pictures of Sikh families outside their temple awaiting news of loved ones are chilling to us all.  Of course, maybe we excuse ourselves from feeling bad about this shooting because we're not ready to get worked up about another round of inexplicable American violence.  After all, the Aurora shooting was just a few weeks ago.  How much hand-wringing and agonizing can one nation handle?

The morning of the Aurora shootings, I wrote a post about our willful national refusal to engage in responsible gun control.  Then I signed a petition at the Brady Campaign website, wrote some letters to my members of Congress, folks who already favor good gun control laws, and listened in horror as gun advocates explained that guns aren't the problem here.  I suppose it won't be long before some NRA advocate explains to me that if only some of the people at the Oak Creek Temple in Wisconsin had guns with them, this event wouldn't have been so violent.  This needn't be so difficult folks: let's ban the sale of assault rifles and let's limit ammunition purchases.  Let's not extinguish more lives in pursuit of some kind of twisted second amendment freedom that doesn't feel like freedom at all to families who have lost the people they love.

I Grow Weary

Each morning in the summer, I stumble downstairs and turn on the coffeepot and the radio.  This morning, I did as usual and then stood dumbfounded in my kitchen as NPR explained the details about yet another public shooting spree.  By mid-morning, as details of the shooting continued to unfold, word came out that the Obama campaign had pulled its negative ads off the airwaves in Colorado.  The Romney campaign cancelled some interviews.  Both the president and the Republican candidate released statements to express their shock and horror, condemn the violence, and call for prayers for the victims and their families.  On Twitter, some folks whom I respect reminded us that the tragedy should not be politicized.

I don't agree.  In fact, I don't see that we have any choice but to politicize this incident.  Every few months, our nation wakes up to some kind of horrible public shooting.  Columbine.  Virginia Tech.  Gabby Giffords.  Texas.  Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  And these high-profile incidents are just the tip of the violent, bloody iceberg that is guns in America.

While we politely wring our hands and condemn the violence, the NRA tells us that "guns don't kill people, people kill people."  Bullshit.  Just…..fuck that.  After the shootings at Columbine, I remember thinking to myself, "well, now people's minds will begin to change."  Now I realize that I was being ridiculously naive.  We have gotten to a point in this nation where almost no elected official will call for a renewal on the ban on automatic assault weapons that expired in 2004, for pete's sake.  How dare we have the gall to act surprised when someone who is troubled and mentally ill grabs up a handful of guns and randomly shoots into a crowd.  Of course this is what happens when guns are so easily acquired.

The second amendment provides for the right to bear arms in order to serve in a well-regulated militia.  Shooting into a crowded movie theatre is nowhere near participation in a well-regulated militia.  It's time to say that out loud; to shout it from the rooftops.  America, we have a problem with guns and violence.  And when we have social problems, the answers can be found in political solutions.  The folks at  the Brady Campaign know this; they've known it for years and they have some ideas about action we can take.  The rest of us should stop being so ignorant and start to explore some solutions.

Update: Mother Jones has an article about the number of times these kind of shootings have occurred in the United States.  It's chilling and you can read it here.