Only In America

Imagine being a mom whose teenage son blew you a kiss as he raced out the door for school this morning, and shouted to you as he ran down the block to catch the bus:

“Bye, mom. I’ve got basketball practice after class. See you around 6.”

But, he never made it to the gym, and he’s never coming home, because your son was slain by a mass murderer, even before school let out.

Unimaginable to those of us blessed with the good fortune to get to see our kids again, maybe not tonight, or tomorrow night, but again. Right?

Photo Credit: ABC News

But terrifyingly real to hundreds of mothers and fathers (or is it thousands at this point?), whose children got caught in the gunfire coming from a weapon in the hands of a disenfranchised human being. Deranged? Angry? Evil? Maniacal?

““This epidemic of mass slaughter (there have been eight school shootings in the US since the start of the year), this scourge of school shooting after school shooting. It only happens here, not because of coincidence, not because of bad luck, but as a consequence of our inaction. We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else,” said Connecticut senator Chris Murphy on the Senate floor during the latest shooting yesterday, at a high school in Parkland, FL.  

Representing the state where 20 children died during the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, Senator Murphy has long been an outspoken supporter of gun control legislation. “As a parent, it scares me to death that this body (the Senate)  doesn’t take seriously the safety of my children, and it seems like a lot of parents in South Florida are going to be asking that same question later today,” he said. “We pray for the families, for the victims. We hope for the best.”

Photo Credit: CNN

Connecticut implemented a law in 1995 that requires people to pass a background check and complete a gun safety course before they can buy handguns.  The gun homicide rate in Connecticut decreased by 40 percent, saving nearly 300 lives in the first decade after the law was enacted, according to a study by the non-political Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research. When Missouri repealed a similar handgun-permitting law, gun homicides in the state increased by 23 percent, which translated to about 50 additional murders with a gun each year, the research also revealed.

It matters not whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican; whether you get the biggest thrill of your life hunting, or can’t stomach even the thought of seeing an injured sparrow. Something must be done to address the gun laws in our country. It is entirely too easy to get your hands on a gun, not just for sport, but for mass murder. Besides, the guns a hunter would use to kill a deer are not the same “assault weapons” someone would aim at a high school student.  

“STOP ACCEPTING BLOOD MONEY”

Politicians who count on the powerful–and rich–NRA to help support their reelection campaigns “care about the money they get, not about their constituents,” said Sergio Rozenblat, the father of a sophomore at the Florida high school where yesterday’s mass shooting took place.

“Stop accepting blood money. Grow a spine. Think of the kids. They’re my family. They’re your family.  When are we going to wake up? You never think something like this is going to hit home. We grow callous, But now it didn’t hit my backyard, it hit my front yard,” Sergio said.  At the school during the shooting, he added that  “the faces of terror, of pain, of fear” are burned into his conscious. “I wish someone would film the faces of the kids and show them to the politicians continually making empty speeches.

“I’m tired of praying. This is real. I’m not preaching. When are you going to wake up?. What is wrong with us? Let’s not talk about it any more. It’s time to stop making speeches, have some concrete steps,  and do something,” Sergio stated powerfully.

When told that Florida senator Marco Rubio said it’s “too early” to talk about this until we know all the facts, Sergio responded: “It’s always too early, until it’s too late. Enough with the rhetoric. We’re letting these guys who sit in Congress, with their pleated pants and $1,000 suits, tell us what to do. There should be an anonymous vote on gun control. We need to vote these people out of office.”

The second amendment of the US Constitution states: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” The amendment has been the subject of vigorous legal debate for generations, much of it well above my head.

But no matter how you interpret it, this is indisputable: Enough is enough.