I arrived home on the night of December 14, 2012, feeling as if I had missed something. Between work and a meeting I needed to attend that night, I had limited contact with the media. My i-phone kept sending alerts but I was too busy to read them. The messages said things like “Sandy Hook Elementary School” – “Adam Lanza” – “Newtown, Ct.” – “Twenty Children, six adults – dead.”

Having picked tidbits of the news and having spoken to my wife twice, I thought had a pretty good idea of what had occurred. I ate dinner and watched the news. The story as it had been related to me in snippets throughout the day started to unravel, for by now more and more of the facts had become clear.

By midnight I had had my fill. I couldn’t watch anymore. Brian Williams signed off, and as I reached for the remote, it happened. The news ended with a musical montage. Quiet, polite, piano music played while pictures of the victims and the day’s events “slide-showed” their way across the screen. I thought to myself, “Jesus Christ they’ve already set this music!” The media’s nice little package of tragedy neatly wrapped and done.” “On with Show!” I turned the TV off and went to bed with a nagging feeling, wondering what tomorrow would bring.

The outrage at the lack of gun control in this country following the Sandy Hook tragedy gave me hope enough to believe that this time – yes, this time – Congress would get it right and tighten the screws on gun makers and distributors. It didn’t take long for the “Guns don’t kill people – people kill people” mob to start working their rebuttal. The loyal denizens of the gun lobby, our Congresspersons, would start their retreat on gun control before the first child was buried.

I was only duped for a while, only duped until the Sunday news talk shows. Before the football games started at 1 PM I knew it was a lost cause. The government wasn’t going to save us. There would be no justice for the children and adults killed in Sandy Hook.

Months later the school building at Sandy Hook would be demolished as if we were being told that if we didn’t see the building anymore the tragedy never happened. Most people know the moral fiber of our government had also been demolished. If we couldn’t affect gun control for these dead children, then it might never happen.

The next act of senseless violence was a shooter in a Colorado movie theater who murdered some people. I can’t tell you where or when. He had red hair and looked like the Joker from Batman, that’s all I remember. There would be more shootings in several malls across the country. Who cares? How could we anymore? In a sad way, our hearts had been numbed after the children were killed, for our own sanity we had to stop caring.

Yesterday, two mass shootings in one day. One in Texas and one in Ohio. How long did you care? How long after hearing the news did you pick up and move on with your day?

If you ever want a perspective on how many people have been victims of gun violence in America take a trip to the Marble Collegiate Church on 29th Street and 5th Avenue in New York City. The church patrons place orange ribbons on the fence around the church, each ribbon represents someone who has died from gun violence. These ribbons also note the names and ages of victims of all the deadliest mass shootings, over 50 in all, starting with Columbine High School Shooting in 1999. The fence is a growing sea of orange.

As surreal as the number of orange ribbons that surround the Marble Collegiate Church is, what seems more unreal is the thought that anything will change.

It’s a two-prong problem that is never seen that way. It’s two issues, but how do we get people to see it?

Maybe it starts with a candidate for president who, as part of their campaign, will turn down the gun lobby campaign contributions and offer to work to appeal the Second Amendment to the Constitution – “The right to bear arms.”

The United States of America was last attacked on September 11, 2001, how well did those firearms work for us that day? How many shots were fired?  We pay hefty taxes for the military to protect us. People don’t need firearms to protect their country. Likewise, we pay taxes for the police to protect us locally. We don’t need guns to protect ourselves or our property.

Truth be told, the average American has no right to have a firearm. We have proven, we don’t know how to keep them safely, they wind up in the hands of people too unstable to have them and we repeatedly pay the price for this “Constitutional Right” with the lives of innocent people being gunned down for no reason.

There have been twenty-seven amendments to the constitution. It’s time we moved to repeal the second amendment, take guns away, and stiffen the penalties for being found with them. Let’s find a presidential candidate willing to make this happen.

We have to declare war on domestic terrorism, ban guns from our homes and take back our country from this madness.

There is another side to this. A grossly neglected side.

No one hangs ribbons for the deranged people who do these shootings. They get their label as being “Crazy”, get their best crazy looking picture plastered on the news, and they more times than not, wind up dead, usually at their own hand.

We often ask, “How do these people get guns?” but never ask “Why can’t these people get help?”

The mental health system in the country is an abomination. For too many years we’ve labeled children as troubled but denied them services and ignored their needs. We’ve labeled teens as troubled and pushed them along, ignoring them, and hoping they will “figure it out for themselves.”

We’ve labeled adults mentally unstable, ignoring them too and hoping they’ll leave us alone. But they don’t. They show up at our schools, at the movies, in the malls, the bars, and the casinos and they kill us.

And lastly, what about those who commit suicide with firearms. The antiseptic way they take their lives bothers us not unless we know them personally. We rarely ask how they secured the gun and rarely do we recognize the lack of assistance available to these people that might avoid these tragedies.

The more we debate these issues, the more people will senselessly die. More funding for mental health programs is needed. We don’t need a wall; we need programs to help people. We don’t need excuses; we need action. We don’t need rhetoric, we need caring.

Today I’ll do Bryan Williams and the boys at NBC one better. I’ll leave you with a song written in 1970 that foretold of a serious problem. We didn’t listen then, it’s time we listen now. We have to hear the ticking. The ticking cries for help. The ticking sounds of those about to hurt themselves or others. We have to do something now.

“Ticking” by Elton John, lyrics by Bernie Taupin.