THOUGHTS IN THE AFTERMATH
Even if you’ve been avoiding the news, word has probably reached you of the mass shooting at a school in Uvalde, Texas, on 5/24 that left at least 21 dead, 19 of them elementary-school children. And you’re probably feeling some combination of apoplexy, despair and exhaustion. Which is entirely understandable.
This in the immediate wake of a supermarket shooting in Buffalo that left 10 dead.
Atop the numbing horror of the act itself and the unimaginable grief inflicted on the families of those gunned down by a man with military-grade weaponry, you may well be feeling—as we do—rage at the protectors of the status quo, whose cowardice in the face of the NRA and their ilk ensures a never-ending supply of such violence. We know this will happen again and that their phoned-in thoughts and prayers will be tossed like a bouquet of plastic flowers on the surface of a bottomless pool of blood and anguish. It is so wearying to go through this collective trauma and know they will never, ever, ever do anything to stop it.
It’s as though we and our kids have been drafted, duty-bound to receive a hail of bullets on playgrounds, at our workplaces, at the store, in church or synagogue or mosque, in movie theaters, concert venues or nightclubs as fate may dictate. After all, we’re told, taking heavy weaponry away from psychopaths would make us less safe.
Indeed, Texas Governor Greg Abbott, former President Trump and Texas Senators Cornyn and Cruz were scheduled to attend the NRA’s 5/27 “celebration of gun rights” a few hundred miles from the latest killing ground. The Senators have weaseled out of it for the sake of optics (and the other guests of honor may as well), but their allegiances have never been in doubt.
Despite what these political guardians of gun culture may tell you, a ban on the class of automatic weapons used in this and many other attacks would make a difference. Making them less easy to obtain would reduce the likelihood of mass killings. Although the NRA’s pet pols will tell you they’re necessary for defense of one’s home or bunker or Humvee or what have you, these particular guns are never used for self-defense. If they were, don’t you think we would’ve heard about it?
A soldier with an AR-15 is answerable to the military chain of command. A distraught civilian with an AR-15—bent on payback, deranged by FOX News or simply deferring to the voices in his head—is answerable to no one.
The people who allow this nightmare to continue, however, are answerable—if we make them answer.
We’re saying it more than ever these days: It’s OK to vote angry. But do vote. Unless and until the gun gang gets the heave-ho, we are not safe anywhere.
— Carl Bernstein (@carlbernstein) May 25, 2022
RESOURCES
Vote for Those Who Will Act to End Gun Violence
The Brady Campaign
Sandy Hook Promise
Everytown for Gun Safety
Resources for Survivors
