It has been a horrific couple of days - one more mass shooting in America and this time in an elementary school. This is an all time low even for the US and as a mother this was just heart breaking. When I picked up my daughter from school I couldn't even imagine what the moms of the 19 kids in Uvalde would be going through at that moment. After Parkland I was hoping something would change. Then we heard about the scandals associated with the NRA and their bankruptcy and I thought, if not now then when? And now Uvalde is here and will anything change at least now?
How can we have a party that claims to be Pro-life also be Pro-guns? For them, life seems to begin at conception and ends the moment the head emerges and the umblical cord is cut. After that a child can be brought into a world without healthcare, with little to no food security, and be exposed to horrific violence in schools - those don't seem to matter to those beholden to the NRA.
How many times have we heard the phrase "guns don't kill people; people kill people." What kind of crazy argument is that? Yes at the end of the day a person wields the weapon, but the kind of weapon matters. Just look at history and how warfare has evolved - from the crossbow, to poison gas, to nuclear bombs, the number of fatalities has correlated strongly with the type of weapon. The solution is not arming schools! When has more weapons been a solution to anything? Is there any justification for any civilian to own a semi-automatic? Countries like Australia and NZ have shown the positive effects of banning such weapons. How many more kids should die before we start learning from these countries. But those countries don't have a right to bear arms enshrined in their constitution - another common retort. How about the right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness that 19 kids in Uvalde are never going to be able to enjoy? Does the right to bear arms trump the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness? I am sure the founding fathers would agree that semi-automatic assault-style weapons in the hands of any citizen with no background checks was not what they had in mind when they drafted the second amendment.
I have to concede i am not hopeful. I hear statistics like 90% of Americans want to have some kind of gun control, some form of universal background check - not this patchwork of state laws. I also know the NRA is hurting, but it looks like there are other lobbies that are powerful. It is also true that conspiracy theories are at a peak right now and that has driven more people to gun ownership. In the nearly 25 years i've lived here I've seen Columbine, Parkland and now Uvalde. At each point I thought a major change was coming and I have been disappointed. I know emotions are running high right now and I am sure the other side is going to say we cannot legislate anything right now. Can we at least repeal the Dickey Amendment and get some funding for research into gun control policies?
No parent should have to deal with a tragedy like what happened in Uvalde. If we cannot unite around this I don't know how we can deal with all the other challenges that we are up against.
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