Enough is Enough

There are many reasons for us to give thanks this year, however, casting a grim shadow over our Thanksgiving is insufficient action towards resolving the tragic and uniquely American epidemic of gun violence, with 601 mass shooting incidents so far in 2022.

Last week we mourned the loss of three bright young men gunned down on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville as they returned from a field trip; five days later, police found a mother and her three children (a 13-year-old and twin four-year-olds) murdered in their Chesterfield County, Va. home; then, on Saturday night, it was five innocent people killed and at least 25 more injured at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which authorities are investigating as hate crimes.

And, of course, there was the Uvalde, Tx., slaughter of 19 children and two teachers in May, preceded by 10 killed in a predominantly Black neighborhood of Buffalo days earlier, which was deemed a hate crime.

Increasingly, as in Buffalo, Colorado Springs, and too many other tragedies, gun violence has become a preferred means of expressing intolerance, white supremacy and hatred of “the other.”

The excuse made by extreme gun-rights activists is that these are cases of mentally challenged individuals who would have acted out with or without guns; easy access to weapons of mass murder is not to blame, they tell us. But they know full well that while mental illness occurs throughout the world, nowhere else in the world, except America, do these events occur at an epidemic rate because nowhere else are guns so readily available. Enough is enough.

Last week and again this week the NRA has been mum. They don't want to talk about Colorado Springs or Charlottesville, nor Uvalde and Buffalo, because they know their “thoughts and prayers” are hollow, cynical reactions in the wake of avoidable tragedies. 

Meanwhile, the vast majority of Americans, 66% earlier this year, including a majority of gun owners, support stricter gun laws and reject the NRA’s efforts to protect a morally corrupt industry.

Given all of that, where is the rational action seeking to prevent these senseless deaths? 

So, we Democrats call on the local, state, and national levels of government to do more. It is way past time to enact common sense gun laws. Then we can all give thanks.