My parents were both great teachers, by profession and with my siblings and I. Whenever a major event happened, they made sure to use it as a teaching moment knowing that is when the lessons would be internalized and changes would be made. Sadly, our current administration doesn't seem to abide by that smart teaching, learning, and adapting philosophy. After the hurricane season resulted in the predicted strong storms, their response was that it wasn't the time to talk about climate change. And it worked in their favor, people moved on and nothing has come of it. Now, after the next predictable mass shooting, the deadliest in modern history, their response is that now isn't time to talk about gun legislation! If you truly mourn for the victims, instead of ignoring the obvious and hoping the feelings pass, let's take the time to do what we should; learn and try to come up with and attempt some solutions.
Let's not forget. Stop politicking and start doing. All of us.
Part II - response to a comment:
477 days, 521 mass shootings. Before anyone gets up in arms about the semantics, I think it's more than fair to define an incident involving 4 or more injuries or deaths as a mass shooting. And, that doesn't take into account the thousands of other homicides and accidents. Do seat belts prevent all car deaths? Of course not, but they drastically reduce them. Why can't we put some kind of safety device (pin, bracelet, etc.) on guns to make them safer and less vulnerable to theft? We can't have tint that is too dark or do certain things to soup up our vehicles. Why can't we make it illegal to buy aftermarket accessories such as the bump stock that essentially turns a gun into an automatic weapon? We have to show a license and have a limit on certain OTC medicines. Why can't we limit a person's number of gun purchases? There is a 21 year old age limit on alcohol, why not guns? Regular inspections are required on cars. Why not for guns? We can microstamp guns and bullets more effectively to make it easier to identify perpetrators, which would discourage their use in crimes. And, of course, there's the issue of universal background checks. This is just the tip of the iceberg. But, NOTHING can be done?! Bad people are just going to do bad things from time to time?! Disturbingly, sickeningly, it is illegal to do gun violence research! This can be absolutely vital to find out which measures or combination of measures would work best. Now these next few delve into the second amendment debate, but it's insane to allow someone on a terror watch list be able to easily buy a gun. Many shootings occur because of mental illness and depression leading to suicidal tendencies. The same goes for domestic violence and we know that it's not uncommon that alcohol is involved in gun violence. If we know this, we should be able to do something about it. This administration has banned immigrants from several countries because of a FEAR that someone may get through our already thorough screening. But NOTHING can be done about gun violence?! Bad people are just going to do bad things from time to time?! No, much CAN and SHOULD be done about it. No solution is perfect and we can't stop every shooting from happening, but we can make it a lot more difficult and save many lives in the process. Our leaders need to stop being biased and swayed by money and the perception of power and start doing what's right, moral, and ethical.
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