Americans, lawmakers. Us. [View all]
Three months after the Newtown, Conn., shooting, President Obama said Americans and lawmakers should be ashamed if theyve forgotten the calls for tighter gun laws that followed the elementary school massacre.
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-pn-obama-newtown-shooting-gun-control-20130328,0,463365.story
Three months. And yes, Congress should be ashamed.
But so should we. We're no different.
Nine weeks ago, I took on a simple project: the
Sunday Shooting Review, which became the
Sunday Child Shooting Review in an effort to clarify, or perhaps to shock. Just a round-up of the week's children who were victims of gun violence.
It garnered 100 recs, 100 replies. So I decided to do them every week, to remind us all that while we're all talking about possible solutions, kids who absolutely do not deserve it are getting
shot.
The next week, the Review garnered half as many recs and replies. No fewer kids killed, mind you.
Soon it was 43.
Then 40.
Then 15.
This week, right now is my usual time to compile the list. But I looked at last week.
3 recs. And that many replies.
I am not, to be clear, bemoaning the state of DU. I am bemoaning the state of all of us. The NRA and others in the gun rights movement told us we'd forget and move on. And I don't blame anyone. You're probably all as tired of reading about it as I am of putting it together. It is so, so sad. The weight of a child's death is overwhelming; in numbers like these, it's in every sense unspeakable.
But 9 weeks. I can't believe it took just 9 weeks.