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The overwhelming majority of Americans are appalled to live in a country that provides easy access to rapid-fire military assault rifles for mass murderers of little children like the teenager who pumped hundreds of rounds of ammunition into a Texas elementary school classroom within four minutes last week.
The even greater shame is mass shootings in schools and everywhere else have become so frequent Americans no longer believe their elected representatives will ever take any meaningful political action to reduce the relentless carnage.
Why would they? The horrific act by the 18-year-old in Uvalde, Tex., who bought two AR-15 assault rifles and 375 rounds of ammunition for his birthday and used one to slaughter 19 fourth graders and two teachers was almost an exact replica of the massacre by a 20-year-old armed with an assault rifle who killed 20 first and second graders and six staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., 10 years earlier when Congress did nothing.
Unsafe at Any Age
The most nonsensical debate in America is whether 18 or 21 is the appropriate age to legally purchase military assault weapons capable of firing hundreds of rounds of ammunition. Why should any American at any age be allowed to buy a deadly military weapon specifically designed to murder hundreds of human beings at a time? That’s not a legally authorized form of recreation in a civilized nation.
There’s no reason Americans should feel helpless to do anything to stop the slaughter of so many precious, beautiful children. We do still live in a democracy. When our elected representatives fail us politically, we can vote them out of public office.
It’s time for every American to share President Biden’s righteous political anger over Republicans continuing to block responsible gun regulations to protect our children from armed madmen.
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“When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?” Biden asked scornfully. “When in God’s name do we do what we all know in our gut needs to be done? . . . I’m sick and tired of it . . . It’s time to turn this pain into action.”
Calling Out the Carnage
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, who was Newtown’s local congressman during that Christmas season child carnage, called out his Republican colleagues on the day of the Uvalde sequel.
“Why do you go through all the hassle of getting this job, of putting yourself in a position of authority if your answer is that as the slaughter increases, as our kids run for their lives, we do nothing,” Murphy asked through tears on the floor of the Senate. “Nowhere else does that happen except here in the United States of America. And it is a choice. It is our choice to let it continue.”
Murphy begged Republicans to join him in passing something, anything. He’s since been joined by five Republicans but they refuse to even consider banning military assault rifles custom-built for mass murderers.
GOP Gun Lobby
Forget about the National Rifle Association. The NRA barely exists anymore. It’s collapsing from its own financial corruption. The Republican Party itself has now replaced the NRA as the nation’s most powerful gun lobby.
That at least isolates the problem. A new, more dangerous Republican Party is remaking itself in the image of its defeated president with all his constant lying, open appeals to racial hatred and white supremacy and promotion of political violence that led to an attempted overthrow of American democracy on Jan. 6, 2021.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has presided over many of the nation’s worst mass shootings including 26 killed in a Sutherland Springs church, 23 in an El Paso Walmart, 10 in Santa Fe high school and 12 in shooting sprees on the streets of Dallas, Midland and Odessa.
Abbott took charge of the briefing on the Uvalde tragedy to tell the first public lies about “quick action” by Texas police he said courageously saved many more lives. The political cover story concocted by Abbott and the Texas state police fell apart almost immediately. Police now admit 19 police officers waited in the hall outside for about an hour while terrorized children still alive inside were repeatedly calling 911 begging for police to save them.
That’s not even the worst story from that day. The worst story is how powerful an AR-15-style military assault rifle is when it’s used against small children. When parents had to identify their children on the worst day of their lives, the only way many of them could was from the clothes they were wearing or from DNA cheek swabs taken from the parents.
I got emotional again just typing that sentence. Every American should read it. Then we all should get mad enough to vote out every damn Republican who refuses to end the sale of military assault weapons to anyone in our country who wants one.
