Tag: guns

Another School Shooting…

Another school shooting.
This time in Georgia.
Widner, Georgia.
Apalachee High School.
I can’t imagine.
I can’t imagine…
The fear.
The sobs.
The anguish.
The emptiness.
My heart breaks.
Again.

My wife collects provocative and thoughtful quotes which fill multiple bulletin boards in our house. When I went to look, I could not find the one I remember seeing on one of those bulletin boards, but it went something like this:
“Who has to be killed, before something changes?”
Your next door neighbor?
Your nephew or niece?
Your parent?
Your child?
The quote was, obviously, directed at those in positions to effect some change.
Who, at moments like this both past and present,
Find that the best they can do
Is offer thoughts and prayers.
And excuses.
So,
To all of you who can do something, but don’t
Before you open your mouth this time.
Or issue a statement this time.
Be honest.
Please.
None of that has worked, has it?
And, you quietly are grateful
That it is not your child.

Dear Mr. Holt

Lester Holt is a journalist and the anchor of the NBC Nightly News.

Dear Mr. Holt,
When I watch the evening news, it is the NBC Nightly News on which you serve as the anchor.
I appreciate the image you project, which I assume to be genuine, of caring about the news on which you and your crew are reporting. I also appreciate how you end the broadcast each evening saying “Take care of yourself and each other.” Given the current state of our politics and our nation that is something we all need to be reminded of.

I am writing today in the shadow of yet another school shooting.
Another mass murder.
Seven more, counting the shooter, needless deaths.
So far this year, in 87 days, there have been 129 mass shootings.
And more than 9800 people killed by gun violence.
Firearm related deaths are the leading cause of death among children and youth.
Statistics which you already know.
Tragedy which you and your newsroom knows each day.
I fear Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN) is correct when he said when asked about the shooting in Nashville, “We’re not going to fix it.”

He is not.
Congress is not.
But, I wonder if you can.
If not “fix it,” at least to help move the pendulum a bit.
Here is what I mean.

I was a teenager in the late 1960’s at the height of the Vietnam War.
My family was fairly traditional.
My parents, particularly my Dad, fairly conservative.
Each evening we watched the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite.
What I remember from that time is, at the end of each broadcast, he would tell us how many US soldiers had died that day in Vietnam and how many had been killed in the entire war.
Each day…
Every day…
We heard those numbers.
And, over time it made a difference.
At least in my household.
More questions were asked about the war.
More healthy skepticism expressed when listening to political talking points.

I wonder if you could do something similar.
I don’t want you to take away your tagline because we still need to hear it, but could you find a way to add how many people had been killed that day by guns and how many have died so far this year.
If you did that
Each day.
Every day.
We would be reminded.
And, maybe changed.
And, maybe little by little find a way
Find the courage
To make a change.

Thank you for listening.

Sincerely,
Paul Alcorn

Deafening Silence

Early on Sunday morning, a young man walked into a Waffle House in Nashville, TN armed with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and began shooting killing four people and wounding four others. When he paused to reload, his gun was wrestled from him and he fled. My online news feed is filled with comments about the silence of elected officials in the wake of this shooting. No thoughts and prayers. No reaction about another white terrorist or why so many young, white males commit acts like this. No comment that the shooter was white and the victims were black. I know with certainty that if the shooter was black or Muslim or an immigrant and the victims were white the reaction would be far different.

But the silence I am most concerned about is not theirs, but ours.
According to Gun Violence Archive, for the week ending April 23, 717 people were killed or injured by guns. That is more than 100 people/day! The year to date number through April 23 is 12,065. 12,065! That is roughly the population of the suburban community in which I live. But unless the shootings occur at some place like a school, the devastating effect of gun violence barely registers with us. It is so common it just is. An everyday occurance 100 times each day.

I don’t know what a workable solution is.
But I know my/our silence adds to our inability or unwillingness to find one. Only when enough of us – both those of us who do not own guns and those who do and who use and care for their guns responsibility – begin to speak up and to say “Enough” will we begin to find a way to lower that number. And that number is, after all, people like you and me.
Mothers.
Fathers.
Sisters.
Brothers.
People with families.
People who will not celebrate their next birthday.
People who will not have another dinner with their loved ones.
People.

Are we really okay with 700 of our neighbors being killed or injured each week by guns?

I Really Don’t Understand

Do they really think it is a good idea to allow those who suffer from severe mental illness to purchase a gun?
After this.
And this.
And this.
How can they look all those parents in the eye and say this is a responsible decision?

How can they think it is a good idea to tell coal companies they can dump coal waste into rivers and waterways?
After this.
And this.
And this.
This may keep a few coal mines open, but coal in Appalachia is never again going to be what it once was. And, when the coal is gone, as most of it now is, what will be left of Appalachia.
Mountains without tops?
Streams fouled with waste that no one can use or enjoy?

Do they really think these are good ideas or are they just trying to get back at Obama and undo what he tried to do?

I REALLY don’t understand.

Heartbroken

The news today is heartbreaking.
I am heartbroken.
And for as sad and angry and despairing as I feel, I can’t imagine what it must be like for my African-American sisters and brothers. Nine people killed as they gathered for prayer at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina and we still refuse to have thoughtful and meaningful conversations about race and guns and violence in our country.
On one hand what can one say in the face of such violence and hatred.
On the other hand those of us who are trying to find a way forward…
Find some way forward…
Need to find the words and the courage to say, even shout, enough is enough.

As I went for a walk this morning to think and to pray, I found myself remembering these words from of William Stringfellow which I will use as we begin our worship this Sunday. Maybe they will help me find a better way to live tomorrow than I have done today.

In the face of death, live humanly.
In the middle of chaos, celebrate the Word.
Amidst Babel, speak the truth.
Confront the noise and verbiage and falsehood of death with the truth and potency and efficacy of the Word of God. Know the Word, teach the Word, nurture the Word, preach the Word, define the Word, incarnate the Word, do the Word, live the Word. And more than that, in the Word of God, expose death and all death’s works and wiles, rebuke lies, cast out demons, exorcise, cleanse the possessed, raise those who are dead in mind and conscience.

Me and Mine

I have been following and thinking about the ongoing and often rancorous gun control debate for more than a year now, but I have purposefully resisted writing more about it not quite sure where or how to add my voice. But it was this article which pushed me to finally risk writing what I have been thinking.
The gun control debate focuses largely on rights.
My right to own a gun.
My right to own any type of gun I want.
My right to not have my guns registered or limited in any way.
My rights.

But it seems to me rights which apply to all of us are always more nuanced than just my rights.
First, my rights always stand side-by-side with your rights.
And those two rights are sometimes at odds or in tension with one another.
Both rights – yours and mine – need to be not only protected, but understood and honored and upheld. If your insistence on your rights denies my rights both of us have already lost.

Second, rights always walk hand in hand with responsibility.
The right to own a gun means to store it and use it responsibly.
The right to free speech means speaking clearly and forcibly and courageously, but not slandering or lying about another.
The right to drive a car down the road comes with the responsibility of knowing the rules, learning to drive, passing a test and not drinking and driving.
Do some abuse both rights and responsibility?
Yes…and sometimes tragically so.
But, when that happens we name what occurred and work to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
We make laws stricter.
We make cars safer.
We clarify which speech is allowable and what type of speech is not.
We need to address the right to own and use a gun in the very same way because if me and mine becomes the only vantage point from which we live, act, think or respond, we face a long, rough,destructive road ahead.

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Several things I believe: