On December 8, 2012, Joseph Loughrey accidentally shot and killed his 7-year-old son, Craig, in the parking lot of a Pennsylvania gun store. On December 11, bullets fired by Jacob Roberts took the lives of Cindy Yuille and Steven Forsyth in an Oregon mall. Many were likely spared when his weapon jammed. Three days later, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in Newtown, CT, it was Adam Lanza’s turn. His gun worked perfectly.
Three moments in time during one, agonizing week in America. Thirty-two people dead. Twenty-one of them children. And one, inescapable conclusion.
None of us should own a gun.
Period.
Arguments to the contrary simply do not hold water. Not the Constitutional ones. Not the self-protection ones. Not the hunting or collection ones. And to insist otherwise is either selfish, delusional, or both.
Demanding the right to own a gun for recreation purposes fulfills a “want,” not a need -a rationale roughly equivalent to that of a two-year old child. Deaths by firearm, be they deliberate, accidental, or collateral, exponentially exceed the number of lives hypothetically saved by armed homeowners and carriers of concealed weapons. And if an outspoken minority truly believes that the best way to respond to their distrust of government is by arming themselves to the teeth, then we have far more serious problems in this country than we think.
Care to experience the great outdoors, bond with your children and demonstrate a healthy respect for life? Take your kids on a hike and bring along a camera instead of a shotgun. Appreciate antique rifles and pistols? Visit a museum or a library. Concerned about your family’s safety? Start a neighborhood watch-group or volunteer to work with at-risk youth. Don’t like the direction the United States is headed? Then think long and hard about whom you vote for or get involved in politics, yourself.
Many feel that laws monitoring background checks, gun registration and firepower are enough to save us from ourselves. Others view the Supreme Court’s razor-thin (5 to 4) decision on the Second Amendment as a fait accompli, and derive comfort from the Court’s tacit approval of prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill.
But the truth of the matter is that all three of these notions are fatally flawed for one, irrefutable reason. Simply put: it is impossible to forecast anyone’s state of mind from one day (or one year) to the next, making the prediction of who is -or who will be- a “responsible gun owner” subject to the same rules as Russian Roulette. This cold, hard reality -one we’ve chosen to ignore for decades- is the Elephant in the Room. And he has a gun.
Our nation loses 30,000 mothers, fathers, sons, and daughters to gun violence each year. That’s the equivalent of three Sandy Hook massacres per day.
Stay with that thought for a moment…Think about where you were and how you felt when you first heard the news about Newtown…Now imagine two more equally horrific shootings unfolding within hours of that nightmare. It is almost impossible to comprehend that much pain.
If we truly want a safer and saner society, we need to make profound changes in our priorities and in the way we live. For starters, we must foster communities that emphasize the value of caring for one another -a way of life that cultivates trust rather than fear; collective purpose rather than individual entitlement. Inherent in such a purpose are remedies for many of the issues that contribute to the violence that is endemic to our homes and to our streets: from the scarcity of available, comprehensive mental heath services, to the prevalence of poverty and its accompanying despair -a lethal combination that can, perversely, make violent crime seem like an attractive option for the most desperate among us.
We all want to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm, which makes embracing the fantasy of having control over the circumstances in our lives all the more alluring. Owning a gun contributes to that deadly illusion, their very presence assuring that the next ghastly headline is just around the corner. By design, they are instruments of death.
And there’s already far too much of that to go around.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment. We are presently looking for 253 new monthly donors in the next 3 days.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
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