“Every time my daughter walks out the front door in the morning, I know she mightn’t come home.”
This mother’s daughter is not a police officer or serving in the military. She is a school kid.
Another one today. Another mass shooting in an American school… Uvalde, Texas. 19 kids and two adults killed, more injured.
Texas. Where last year Republicans passed a law so anyone over 21 can buy a gun without a license, test or background check, but the state has the most restrictive abortion laws in the United States. Priorities.
There was the usual outrage today at the NRA, more #ThoughtsAndPrayers, more politicians up in arms (thankfully not literally) and the President asking “When in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby?”
That’s an excellent question. Maybe someone should ask her.
Unfortunately those thoughts and prayers mean f*ck all to the children and adults killed or injured in the 27 school shootings in the United States this year. Not to mention the victims of mass shootings in supermarkets, churches, colleges etc, etc. Also not to mention the psychological scars the survivors will endure.
I’m Australian and it’s unimaginable to me that kids have emergency drills in school in case some nutjob with an AR-15 is pissed off at the universe and goes berserk.
It’s unimaginable to me that you can easily buy a military-style weapon… or two, that were apparently bought by the killer (I refuse to name him) just after after his 18th birthday. As one does.
It’s unimaginable to me that the United States Constitution includes the right to keep and bear arms. This amendment was ratified in 1791, however back then nobody was stalking victims in a school with an AR-15. Why the actual f*ck can’t it be unratified in 2022?
It’s unimaginable to me that terrified kids would have to desperately crawl for their lives through school windows and hide in a nearby funeral home, which will be the new temporary home to many of their dead friends.
It’s unimaginable to me that panicked parents have to run down to a school and wait for hours to hear if their child is alive or dead following another mass shooting. Their anguished screams echoing through the eerie silence of the school car park.
In the United States the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 was supposedly the line in the sand. This is it. Never again. Hasn’t quite worked out.
Australia had its own Sandy Hook… in 1996. That horrific Sunday afternoon in Port Arthur, Tasmania when 35 people were killed and 23 injured. Just 12 days after the Port Arthur massacre, then Prime Minister John Howard announced a sweeping set of gun reforms. As Tim Fischer, Howard’s deputy said, “Port Arthur we acted on. The USA is not prepared to act on their tragedies.”
Gun control is possible. There hasn’t been a mass shooting in Australia since Port Arthur. The same can’t be said for the United States. Thoughts and prayers are standing by…
©Steve Williams 2022
