So, lower the flag to half-staff. Turn the hymn book to the dog-eared page for "Amazing Grace" and light some candles. We have got the routine down. Mass shootings are America's real "Groundhog Day."
We will hear again the same Republican/NRA/gun manufacturer arguments about exactly why we cannot do anything to stop mass shootings or school shootings.
We will hear about all the mental illnesses.
"There will always be people like the Buffalo shooter. Always have been, always will be."
Mental illness occurs at roughly the same rate in humans across the globe. America does not have the corner globally on mental illness, but we do have the corner on mass gun shootings and gun violence.
We will hear that "more guns make us safer." We have hundreds of millions more guns than any other country in the world, but we have vastly more mass shootings and everyday gun deaths than any other country: 57 times more school shootings than all the other industrialized countries combined. More guns do not make us safer.
We will hear that "the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." But in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, in the past two weeks the good guy with a gun could not stop the bad guy with the gun because the bad guy was wearing body armor.
In Buffalo, security guard Aaron Salter confronted the shooter and shot at him, but the shooter was wearing body armor and was not injured. He returned fire and killed Salter. In Uvalde, the shooter was shot at by two armed police officers, but he was wearing body armor and proceeded to finish his attack. With his legally bought military weapon, he killed 19 grade school students and two teachers in little over two minutes.
In the same Texas, the day after the Uvalde shooting, Republicans passed a new law that allows for the "open carry" of a firearm without a background check, permit or training.
There is really only one variable that differentiates the United States from other countries when it comes to gun violence and mass shootings. It's the gun, stupid. We allow very easy access to firearms and we have 400 million of them. Other countries do not. Republicans are lying.
So, lower the flag to half-staff. And just leave it there.
Marty Ansley
Cinebar
