I've written this before. But you've announced that you're praying before. We're all on repeat here.
You can give yourself over to God, but I'm not that desperate yet. I want to live in a civil society with laws written by men and women that make sense, laws that protect people. There is a logical way to do this – it was done in Australia, and other sophisticated nations after mass shootings. And it worked.
But we are no longer a sophisticated nation. We have officially given up.
We have decided it's okay for the lunatics to run the asylum, for guns to be the dominating force in our lives, for God to be our leader in absentia. Somehow, despite all evidence to the contrary, gun-loving Americans believe He will protect them.
I heard someone in Sutherland tell a reporter that this kind of thing doesn't happen here – it happens in places like New York. No, in New York we have our share of crime, and yes, we have had our share of terrorism. But this is not ground zero for crazy white man shooting rampages. That typically happens in other places, not here.
It happens in small towns such as Sutherland, Texas, where the population doesn't even come close to 1,000, where seven percent of the population was killed in this week's shooting. It happens in smaller cities such as Aurora, Colorado, on college campuses such as Virginia Tech's, in leafy suburbs such as Sandy Hook and bigger cities with loose gun laws such as Las Vegas.
I am sick and tired of being told by conservative Americans in other places that we coastal liberal elites – those of us who don't believe that citizens should be able to buy AR-15 assault rifles – that we must live by their rules, according to their terrifying idea of what's normal. That it's the price we have to pay for freedom.
That's not freedom – that's a prison of fear. I've got a growing list of public places I don't want to visit – how about you? Mine includes movie theatres, concert halls, outdoor concert venues and schools. I would say churches, but I don't go to church.
You pray for the dead. But it's too late for them. Tell me, what are you willing to give up for the sake of the living?
I am sick and tired of politicians tweeting their thoughts and prayers. What could be more cavalier, more meaningless, more thoughtless? Do you think your tweeted prayers hold more weight than legislation? We didn't elect you to pray – we elected you to keep us safe, to write laws that underscore a common, logical belief that the freedom to live without fear of being shot is more important than the freedom to shoot rapid fire assault weapons.
I am sick and tired of people who rely on God to save us from this human-made destruction. If you think God sanctions the proliferation of AR-15 assault rifles, I pity you: you've been sold a bill of goods.
We have become so inured to gun violence – we barely register it anymore. Three people, 10 people, 26 or 500. No matter the number, it doesn't move the needle, it doesn't move people to act. It's a repetitive loop. The only thing that changes is the location – another group of people who thought they were immune to it stunned into understanding the danger of guns because an automatic assault rifle has killed their neighbour, their friend, their daughter, left their town drowning in a river of blood. But the rest of us shrug. Until it hits us squarely where we live, we shrug.
Our elected leaders shrug. They pretend that there's nothing they can do. They feign shock. They promise more prayers than our priests.
Some of you pray too. You pray for the dead. But it's too late for them. Tell me, what are you willing to give up for the sake of the living? Or have you too given up?