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Enough is Enough! [1]
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Date: 2023-07-17
A few months ago, a man shot several people at the Outlet Mall near where I live and shop regularly. Luckily, I wasn’t there. But it was the 3rd time I’ve personally had a close call with a mass shooting.
The first time was a few years ago. A racist student on the college campus where I teach decided he had to kill some Mexicans. Fortunately for me, instead of shooting people on campus, he drove ten hours to El Paso and attacked people at a Walmart. He recently received 90 life sentences.
The second time was in the middle of the last spring semester, about a month before the outlet mall shooting. My phone and all the student’s phones started getting text and email alerts in the middle of class telling us there was potentially an active shooter. Once again, I got lucky. The suspected shooter was thought to be on a different campus than where I was.
The report of the shooter turned out to be a hoax. But at the time, no one knew this. Students and teachers on the campus where this happened still had to lock down. They had to wait for the police to announce the coast was clear. They had to come out of the building with their hands up, leaving all their belongings behind, facing a team of SWAT officers with guns drawn.
These days, I continually wonder when my luck will run out.
The problem
The US is the only developed country with this level of gun violence. There is now, on average, more than one mass shooting per day.
There is a Wikipedia page listing all the mass shootings this year. Through June, the page lists 340 mass shootings killing 416 people and wounding another 1,355. Extrapolating those numbers will mean 832 people will be killed in 2023 in mass shootings.
In comparison, another Wikipedia page lists the number of fatalities in America’s longest war, Afghanistan, at 2456 over 21 years! That’s only 117 per year during a war compared to our domestic mass shooting death rate of 832. Domestic deaths from mass shootings are seven times the annual rate of US fatalities during the Afghanistan war.
After every shooting, the pundits on TV give vague advice like, ‘We must hold our politicians accountable,’ or ‘These survivors are searching for answers.’ But no concrete action is taken.
The Elephant in the Room
Enough is Enough. The answer is obvious. The media is just afraid to call out the elephant in the room.
The US has a gun violence problem because too many people vote Republican. Once elected, GOP legislators block every attempt to pass sensible gun legislation.
The specific solution is voting Democratic until there is a Democratic super-majority. That is the only way this problem gets addressed.
By super-majority, for those who don’t know, means a Democratic House, a filibuster-proof (60-seat majority) Democratic Senate, and a Democratic President.
The media won’t state this explicitly because it will appear that they are biased. Democratic politicians won’t say this explicitly because it will appear they are taking advantage of a tragic situation. So, we, the people, must do it.
The reality is that the GOP will not move on this issue – ever. They’ve had plenty of chances. From Columbine to Sandy Hook, to Parkland, to now Allen. The GOP has done nothing. And they’re not going to.
We are doing a disservice to our country by not stating the solution directly and explicitly. Nothing will change about our gun laws until we have a Democratic super-majority. And the person who votes Republican unwittingly enables these mass shootings.
Also, by not stating that voting Republican is the problem, it’s letting those who vote Republican and GOP legislators escape accountability. It’s like watching a relative commit crimes and remain silent. After a while, the silence aids the criminal.
The Action
We are approaching a presidential election year. I’m suggesting all of you have tough political conversations with the voters around you like I’m going to.
If you’re talking to someone who votes Republican because they are against abortion, ask them, ‘Can you really be pro-life and against regulating the weapons of death?’ Isn’t it better to vote Democratic and solve the gun violence issue so babies have a better chance at a long life?
If they vote conservative because they want strong borders, point out that the immigrants are fleeing violence enabled by thousands of smuggled guns from the US. A 2021 CNN report found that “70% of firearms seized by law enforcement in Mexico and 42% of those seized in Guatemala were first sourced in the US.”
The CNN report also stated, “This flow of guns into Central America is known as the “iron river,” and it is vast in scale; according to the Mexican foreign ministry, an estimated 200,000 guns are trafficked from the US into Mexico each year – an average of more than 500 per day.”
If we vote Democratic, we can stop the flood of guns entering Central America. And, in turn, reduce the number of people fleeing to our border.
If they vote for the GOP because they don’t want to ‘defund the police.’ Have them imagine what it is like for a cop, alone, at night, making a traffic stop, approaching a car with dark, tinted windows, knowing there could be an AR-15 pointed back at him or her. Wouldn’t you be on edge if you were a cop in that situation? I would be.
Don’t you think that our friends in the police force would be more at ease on their job if we banned military-grade assault weapons? But only by voting Democratic can we remove these weapons that police face daily.
If the GOP voter you’re talking to still is not convinced, have them watch this NBC News report about what Serbia did to address mass shootings.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that the excessive sale of guns in the US takes too many lives, makes the immigration problem worse, and makes policing harder.
The GOP will block any attempt to solve this problem. The gun violence problem will only be solved by a Democratic super-majority. The media won’t say it. The politicians won’t say it. So, we have to say it.
Don’t wait till your luck runs out. It’s literally a matter of life and death.
Enough is Enough!
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