Ten people were shot dead in Boulder, Colorado on Monday.
Eight people were shot dead in Atlanta last Tuesday.
Shootings doubled in New York City last year, contributing to the highest number of homicides in the five boroughs since 2012. Those deaths contributed to the 19,223 people who were killed as a result of gun violence in America last year, according to Gun Violence Archives — an all-time record even with a deadly viral pandemic in our midst.
COVID-19 was a new problem that unleashed death and destruction across America, and the world, in a single year. We mobilized like never before to help fight the disease and beat it with a vaccine. Still, it killed hundreds of thousands of Americans — due, in no small part, to the ignorance of some who sought to diminish the virus’ threat, and hampered the efforts to slow and stop the spread.
In many respects, the situation mirrors how we’ve responded to the epidemic of gun violence in America that has gone on virtually unchecked for decades.
The carnage has been happening on our street corners, in our schools, in shopping malls and supermarkets and concerts and so many other public places over, and over, and over, and over again. Without end, it goes on — and we can’t do anything to stop it.
Why? Because we can’t get enough votes in the halls of Congress to make it happen.
One party, the Democratic party, wants new gun laws. It doesn’t seek to “take the guns.” It seeks to keep them out of the hands of dangerous, unstable people. It seeks to prevent the average joe from acquiring a weapon of war that can fire off dozens of deadly rounds in a matter of seconds.
The other party, the Republican party, wants no part of any gun law.
They’ve perverted the definition of the Second Amendment to mean that any American can have any weapon they want, regardless of the public danger such weapons pose. They won’t even support the most basic of gun control laws — background checks that can stop a criminal or a deranged individual from getting their hands on an AR-15 before they can unleash death upon innocent people.
We’re sick of the shootings and death in New York and in America. It’s time for Congress and the President to act — and Democrats are in a position to do it. They must not waste that opportunity, even if careless Republicans try to stand in the way.
It’s time to fight back against the gun violence epidemic in America — not with more guns, but with less of them. After all these years, it’s time to act — and let no Republican stand between us and a safer, more peaceful country.
