I wrote the post below around midnight of December 15, 2012. The events of Sandy Hook unfolded in real time on Twitter, and the dread grew with each minute as the reality of the shooting began to unfold from reporters and people on the scene giving live updates via tweets.
I remember thinking at the time that as horrific as Sandy Hook was we’d find a way to come together to seek solutions to gun violence and the ability to kill so many so easily. This would be the turning point.
Of course, despite some wonderful grassroots groups that followed, it wasn’t. Alex Jones showed the true evil in the world by creating a cottage industry of nutcases who saw every mass shooting as either faked or an act of the government. We saw parents and relatives have their horror compounded by people who attacked them and their children in every arena. 10 years later we’ve had so many mass shootings that we can’t remember them all, so we now categorize them by saying “worst workplace/school/place of worship shooting since the (insert workplace/school/place of worship/town) shooting six months ago.”
I don’t think we should ban guns. I do think there are reasonable limits on the type you should own. I also think that gun manufacturers and sellers shouldn’t enjoy the broad legal protections they enjoy. And we should be able to more easily track guns from point of creation to dealer to owner to destruction. Of course, with this Supreme Court, I wonder if we’re not going to see it get even worse.
So here’s what I wrote 10 years ago. Thoughts and prayers have done us no good. When will we do more?
Over 11 years ago my daughter was a month away from being born on a beautiful September day when four planes were crashed by men with nothing but evil on their minds. I remember being stunned, horrified, sad, and scared. What kind of world was my daughter entering?
Those feelings faded, and I can honestly say that nothing's really approached them since. Even as the anniversaries of 9/11 came and went, it seemed more and more impersonal, like something that happened to someone else.
Today was another normal day. I went to work and as I was checking twitter for a laugh, I saw the reports of a school shooting. An elementary school. The morbid curiosity that such an event used to bring for a news junkie like me was replaced by immediate dread. I found myself horribly hoping that it was at worst a domestic situation or perhaps just some misguided kid who brought a gun to school.
And the early reports gave me hope. "Gunman dead." But the continual reports made it clear it was much worse.
Twenty children, all younger than my own baby. Twenty lives snuffed out in no time at all by a man with a gun. I cried many times. I had trouble focusing on work all day. I got angry and I spoke out.
I asked the question on other social media sites: "Can we talk about guns now?"
The responses from the most rabid gun lovers in my "social" circles made it clear the answer was no. How dare I politicize this event while the tragedy was still unfolding.
How dare I not?
Spare me the "if they didn't have guns, they'd just find something else," argument. That includes the 22 kids who were injured today (not killed as many kept saying) in China by a knife wielding maniac.
No, I don't think you should ban knives, cars, drinking, or other items that you ridiculously equate with guns.
I didn't even say you should ban guns.
But those who chastised me didn't care about the discussion, they cared about the mention of the role of guns in this mass murder.
"Guns don't kill people, people do," I was told.
Here's the truth. Guns help the people who do kill people do it quickly, easily, and in large numbers without any time for reflection or to get away.
So spare me your NRA talking points. Spare me the idea that discussion of guns and what we can do about gun violence equates to an evil government coming to collect all your guns. Spare me your paranoia.
And hey, Mike Huckabee and AFA mouthpiece Bryan J. Fischer, spare me your belief that this is because of the separation of church and state and God decided he didn't want to be where he wasn't wanted. It's not clear at this point what separates you and people like you from people like Westboro Baptist Church.
If gun defenders are as brave as your rhetoric, back bumperstickers and Facebook posts, then be prepared to sit down and talk like adults about what we can do. Nobody's going to kill you with their words, thoughts, ideas, or questions.
Perhaps we might all make the world a better place.
And figure out how we keep future generations from knowing what a mass shooting is.
We owe it to my daughter, her friends, and all of the innocent children and grieving parents who were victims of today's senseless violence.
Think about it. And pray about it. But know we can no longer do nothing about it.
