“If you think freedom means to hell with other people…”
This is such a succinct way to put into words how so many people seem to view freedom, sadly.
If anyone is looking to take some action, Everytown is a great organization doing seriously meaningful work on gun reform. They have info on where to donate, how to volunteer, who to contact. Waylon’s blog also has great info to use as talking points for friends/family who are open (or not) to the conversation. Read it here. ~ Emily, Ed.
At a certain point, you have to ask yourself: do I care?
If the answer is yes, open your heart. Open your mind.
We *can* fix this. We can invest in change, instead of merely arguing online. Here’s how.
PS: if you don’t care, if you’d prefer to soapbox in comments on twitter and instagram and facebook, you are the problem.
This is your sign.
If you’re arguing online against commonsense gun reform that 90% of Americans support right now, you are the problem.
You, not just the shooters, are the reason these shootings continue.
If you don’t want to change the laws after today, or after any mass shooting, you don’t love guns. You love gun violence.
Just moments after learning my town had been shot up, I went live with this video, with Sarah Wilson. Luckily, the subject of our discussion was how to save the world, and how to serve it, and whether giving up or nihilism was an option.
And here’s my subsequent video about the mass shooting in Boulder. I connect what happened here to some of our other problems, and hopefully offer a way forward:
Compare the US to every other country in the world.
We have more guns here than people. America has six times as many firearm homicides as Canada, and nearly 16 times as many as Germany.
There’s a mass shooting every day, on average. Gun culture is responsible: states with more guns have more gun deaths. Other countries with more guns have more shootings, too.
We’re the outlier: we have more shootings. Even within the US, states with tighter gun control laws have fewer gun-related deaths.
More guns, more suicides: the states with the most guns report the most suicides. Policies that limit access to guns have decreased suicides.
Care about Police? Okay: police are more likely to be killed in homicides in states with more guns.
Support for reasonable reform is widely popular.
For more, read:
Why we should not Blame Gun Violence on Mental Illness.
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