Today marks the ninth anniversary of the slaughter of 26 people, among them 20 six- and seven-year-old school children. That horrendous event took place in Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
To the surprise of no one, there was yet another school shooting a week or so ago. This one resulted in the murder of four teenage students and the wounding of seven other people. The 'alleged' shooter? A 15-year-old whose parents bought him a gun as a Christmas gift. Despite evidence of their son's disturbed mind, the parents refused to respond to calls from school officials. They refused to withdraw him from school, and school officials let him return to class with a backpack, later believed to have held the gun used in the killings. The parents have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for their part in the killings. School officials who failed to suspend the teen from school, instead letting him return to class, also are facing possible charges.
How long will we who continue to tolerate the slaughter of our children?
How much longer will students be expected to take part in active shooter drills, to pass through metal detectors at school entrances, and to fear for their lives each day they go to school?
How long will we ignore the warning signs of dangerous mental illness?
How long will we fail to hold the parents of these child murderers accountable?
How long will parents have to wonder each day when they send their children off to school whether that will be the last time they get to see their kids alive?
How many children have to be killed after being caught in the crossfire of gun battles in the streets, or during drive-by shootings?
How many children in their homes, doing homework or sleeping or watching television, have to die?
There is a fundamental problem in this country involving firearms, the Second Amendment be damned. No civilian needs to own a semi-automatic handgun or rifle for hunting or self-protection. No civilian. Something has to be done. But as we have seen time after time after time, there is lots of hand ringing and there are lots of ‘thoughts and prayers’ offered by government officials, but nothing changes.
If the slaughter of 20 young children in 2012 didn’t result in any changes, I have to wonder what it will take.
The bottom line is this: America loves its guns more than it loves its children.
Of course, children are not the only victims of gun violence. Recent shootings in public places have included grocery stores, shopping malls, businesses and movie theaters. Nowhere, it seems, is safe from the threat of being killed by some crazed or vindictive person with a gun.
It is long past time to answer the question: Does America love its guns more than the lives of its children? If the answer is 'no,' what are we as a nation willing to do about the violence against our children?
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