Getting Real with Shadra Bruce
Today was supposed to be just another wedding post, because yesterday was Valentine’s Day and it’s the season of love and we’re all happy with our chocolate indulgences and date nights.
No.
There are now 17 sets of parents who will forever mark Valentine’s Day as the DAY THEIR KID DIED SENSELESSLY IN YET ANOTHER MASS SHOOTING.
Valentine’s Day is yet another day where “thoughts and prayers” are supposed to heal those wounds, while inaction from Congress is all that we expect.
Valentine’s Day is now just another day where we switch from the news to the latest reality show and go on with our lives because we’ve become so used to gun violence in schools that we hardly bear witness to the ABSOLUTE HORROR of it.
Columbine should have resulted in gun laws.
Sandy Hook should have resulted in gun laws.
And Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School needs to result in gun laws.
We are 46 days into 2018. The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida was the EIGHTEENTH incidence of gun violence at a school this year. There have been 290 school shootings since 2013. There have been 8 school shootings in 2018.
Since Sandy Hook (2012) there have been 438 deaths from school shootings. Want to know how many SOLDIERS have been killed in Afghanistan in the same amount of time? 528.
It’s almost safer to be a soldier in war than it is to be a student in an American school.
Nothing is going to change as long as Congress is funded by the NRA
This isn’t political. This isn’t democrat vs. republican. This is LIFE VS DEATH
The ONLY way we will be able to actually cause action that saves the lives of our children is to vote for people who won’t take money from or be influenced by the NRA.
I’m not talking about taking away the rights of hunters. I’m not talking about coming door to door and removing everyone’s guns. But it’s time to go back to NO ASSAULT rifles. There was a ban on assault rifles in place from 1994-2004, and during that time, deaths from mass shootings fell.
Banning assault weapons isn’t the total solution. It’s a start. It needs to be accompanied by better mental health support, a strengthening of our education system, better medical care, addressing poverty, and many other policy-related issues. But it starts by taking the damn guns.
Image source: Gun Violence Archive
