I've written my Congressman and my Senators, urging them to support a ban on assault weapons. I've thanked Dianne Feinstein, who has promised to introduce such legislation on the first day of the new Congress.
Anything I begin to write here sounds shallow, and I can immediately come up with a comeback. But this I know:
- I know now is the time to speak up about the issue of gun control. We as a country should never have allowed the ban on assault weapons to expire in 2004. Ah, but we as a country don't have the influence of the NRA.
- I know the NRA doesn't have a leg to stand on, and they – by their silence since Friday's massacre – must know it, as well. They've deactivated their Facebook and Twitter accounts. They haven't even so much as expressed their condolences.
- I know the families who lost children and loved ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School will never recover completely from the horror they've experienced. Never.
- And I know there's nothing – no action, no sentiment, no petition, no meme, no prayer, even – that will help.
I hate that tragedies get turned into political issues. There should be absolutely NO ARGUMENT about semi-automatic and automatic weapons being removed from the hands of non-military citizens. There should be NO ARGUMENT about thorough background checks. There should be NO ARGUMENT about the sanctity of human life.
I also know it's not about taking God out of schools. That one makes me ill. Who in their right mind thinks 20 first-graders were slaughtered because we've systematically removed God and prayer from classrooms? Oh. Right. Mike Huckabee.
What a sorry excuse for a Christian he is (she said, judgmentally).
One of these days, sooner rather than later I hope, we will come to a place as a nation where mental health services are affordable and accessible, where early intervention offers hope and help, where prisons are not the last resort for treatment. If you haven't read this yet, you must. Be forewarned: It's not easy to read.
Read it anyway.
