The past 24 hours have been especially sickening, even given the events over the past year since President Trump took office. That's saying something. A couple of images from the Parkland, Florida school massacre are haunting. Lines of students holding out or putting up their hands as they flee a mass shooting scene struck me as so disturbing, as if pleading with authorities not to shoot them as they surrender. We know this was based on what they were told in some earlier drill, and the fact that innocent children have to prepare for such an unthinkable event says a lot about where we've come. The second stomach-churning thing is the simplistic pronouncement by people saying, "The best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." Gee, wasn't there an armed security officer somewhere at that Parkland high school who never encountered that shooter? Of course, "gun laws have nothing to do with it," right? Then will someone please explain why the USA has way more mass shootings and gun ownership than anyplace else on the planet?
Yes, mental health and society's attitudes toward it have a lot to do with this conversation. I may even be off base thinking America's gun culture and lobby are the primary cause of this curse on our society, but at least I am calling for a discussion and prioritization of this complicated issue. Politicians like our President - who couldn't even mention guns today - have blood on their hands when they let the National Rifle Association shut down the broad-based conversation putting EVERYTHING on the table to begin curbing this national shame. Screw you!
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