Tag: #Guns

  • Two Mass Shootings, Again

    Two mass shootings happened in the span of a week, and only now, for me, is it sinking in what has happened.

    I am not proud of this fact, but it felt normal.

    The poor guy in Boulder, CO standing outside of the grocery store saying that he feels like no place is safe pretty much sums it up. No place is safe, and we are all fine with it.

    Asian-Americans have been saying for over a year that they are being scapegoated for Covid-19, but did anyone listen? People had been pointing out for a year that the rhetoric that Trump and his supports were using was hurting Asian communities, but it was blown off. In fact, I saw a conservative friend ask why it was okay to “UK Variant,” but why couldn’t he say, “China Virus?”

    It doesn’t register for most people anymore. Even when it turns violent. Even when the inevitable AR-15 or whatever semi-automatic people killing gun is used, it doesn’t matter.

    Apathy has won.

    Most Americans see the hate, see the use of guns to kill large numbers, and they shrug because we have given up. There will be another racist attack. There will be another mass shooting. And we give up.

    We give up because it will turn into a debate about free speech and the 2nd Amendment.

    But it’s not about that. It’s about hate and fear. And are we going to do something? When will it be different? Or when will I blog about this same thing all over again?

  • Again

    I avoided the news, but I couldn’t escape it when the second shooting happened.

    There is no more avoiding. It is inescapable now. Nowhere is safe anymore. Being shot at is now the most American thing that we do. 40,000 American’s a year die in gun related deaths. We are so far ahead of the rest of the world in this statistic, that it looks like we are fighting a war. Compare that to the 58,000 that dies in 10 years of fighting in Vietnam.

    This is a crisis.

    And though mass shootings steal the headlines, it is suicides that are driving these high numbers. Mental illness and access to guns.

    And yet we let this happen.

    We let people tell us that the right to a gun is all encompassing, and that this is what freedom looks like. I am free to be shot at. I am free to not be safe. I am free to go to vigils after massacres. I am free to get in line to donate blood for help victims.

    We let people tell us that sick individuals perpetrate these acts, but we don’t do anything to help people get the care they need. They are on their own.

    And the hate… All the hate that comes up again, and again from these white supremacists as the post manifestos and go out and kill.

    And here we are again.

    The only thing that gave me hope, the only one was the crowd in Dayton shouting at the governor to, “Do Something!”