As what always happens after a large mass shooting, gun-rights’ politicians offer their “prayers and condolences” and refute any attempts to talk about gun laws because “People are grieving,” “It is not decent to talk about it,” or something similar. After the mass killings at Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, San Isidro, San Bernardino, Fort Hood, Washington D.C., Aurora, Seal Beach, Red Lake and so many others, cowardly politicians (most notably ones that have received financial bribes from the NRA) never act to pass common-sense legislation that would reduce gun violence. “Now is not the time,” we here them say.
Was it not the time to talk about war when 2,403 servicemen were killed at Pearl Harbor in 1941? Was it not the time to talk about improving homeland security in response to 9/11, the worst attack on U.S. soil that killed 2,996 people? Was it not the time to talk about rushing aide to the victims of natural disasters that have occurred every year in our nation and beyond? When it comes to war, foreign attacks, or natural disasters, the President and Congress have almost always acted swiftly and decisively to supply aide to those in need. But the silence on guns is deafening.
If the crazed perpetrator of the latest–and deadliest–mass shooting on October 1st of this year had been Muslim or had ties to ISIS, this administration and Republican-controlled Congress would have viewed the horrific event as a terrorist attack and acted quickly and decidedly with new bans, protections, maybe even military attacks. But because this terrorist attack was domestic and perpetrated by a White American, we hear the same deflections from the same people who won’t call it terrorism. They refuse to face the fact that this country has an epidemic of gun violence due to too many guns in the hands of too many people that should not have them in the first place. As Joe Biden has said, “It’s the guns, stupid!”
The time is NOW to talk, to debate, to act to reduce gun violence, not when news cycles move on to other issues, and gun laws can be put off yet again until the next day of mass killings.