Bluebird Days & Gun Violence

 

It's another beautiful September bluebird day here, just as it was on this date 24 years ago.

Those of us who lived through 9/11 and its aftermath will never forget it, and those who died and whose lives were forever changed by that violence cannot be forgotten either.

My heart aches for all the victims and survivors of sectarian, politicized violence everywhere.

For the high school students yesterday in Evergreen, CO. For the Catholic school students last week in Minneapolis, MN. For the political assassination attempts against Nancy Pelosi and her husband, and the political assassinations of the MN state legislator and her husband three months ago. For their children and grandchildren.

For the school students across the country, every day, who die, survive, or live in fear of gun violence.

For the family of Charlie Kirk, who famously said, "It's worth it to have a cost of, unfortunately, some gun deaths every single year so that we can have the Second Amendment".

I don't agree. Not one of these gun deaths is worth the type of uncontrolled ownership of people-killing weapons that proliferate without limits in this nation.

I have opposed gun violence for 50 years, since I was in high school.

I grew up during a period of political assassinations, starting with Medgar Evers, then JFK, then Malcolm X, then MLK, then RFK -- 5 assassinations in 5 years, stopping the progressivism of racial and economic justice of the 1960's dead in its tracks.

I live with that legacy burned into my memory.

All gun violence -- from domestic violence, to suicide, to political assassinations, to mass shootings, to war -- are signs of types of mental illness.

As humans, we all struggle - and our hearts must ache and break for each other.

What we should not be doing is fueling our human struggles with the uncontrolled tools of mass destruction.

The Second Amendment -- the right to bear arms to protect our families, communities, and most importantly, nation -- is not about the uncontrolled proliferation of military-grade hardware.

We are all the victims of gun violence.

Much of it could be prevented through very basic gun standards of ownership, registration, permitting.

My heart goes out to all the victims and survivors of our national illness of gun violence, and my compassion to all those whose words and actions serve only to fan the flames and increase the vicious cycles of hate and retribution.

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