Here we go again. When
will we stop hearing about crazy men, guns, and senseless killing? Whether it’s a congresswoman and her constituents
in Arizona, movie goers in Colorado, the girlfriend of an athlete in Kansas City, or school children in Connecticut,
it has become nearly impossible to read, listen, or watch the news without learning of
some new act of public violence.
All across Facebook, I see my friends sharing images that ask
for prayers for the children and staff of Sandy Hook Elementary School. While I appreciate that tragedies such as
this one radiate grief well beyond the circle of those immediately affected, prayer
is not the answer. Instead, we should
all be working to prevent monsters such as this latest one (or possibly two) from having such easy access to guns and ammunition.
Skip the prayer and write or call your representatives to enact sensible
gun control. At the same time, tell the
NRA to step aside and allow Americans, and not the gun lobbyists, to speak for
the wishes of the country.
Nobody is asking that all guns be banned. All we want are simple changes to help stop
the madness. It has become far too easy
for a madman (and they are typically men) to buy an unlimited number of guns
and countless rounds of ammunition. These folks
aren’t out hunting for sport. They
are out to kill people -- innocent people who just happen to be in the wrong
place at the wrong time.
The time has come for reasonable people to come together and demand that something
be done. Yes, you can pray for the victims. You can even pray for the perpetrators, but
that isn’t enough. People have
prayed and prayed and the bullets still fly and scores of people still die. We all need to take a serious look at guns and the damage they do to us as a whole. Enough is enough.
