18 in 45 days
As you well know, our country experienced another tragic school shooting last week, and depending on the criteria used for identification, it may be the 18th such event to have occurred just since the beginning of this year. That's three per week.
Seventeen students and staff members were killed and numerous others were injured in the attack. As has been the case multiple times in the past, the perpetrator appears to be a former student with a history of behavioral issues and numerous warning signs that something like this was possible.
To me, the difference with this incident is that many of the students are speaking out about the need for someone to do something. These students articulate the frustration that so many of us feel in the face of these events, that there must be SOMETHING we as a society can do. I applaud these students and parents for their statements and hope that they don't let up, now that they have captured the media's attention.
Worth noting here that last February Congress passed a law--and President Trump quietly signed it--that made it easier for those with mental illness to obtain guns, reversing a law that was enacted under President Obama. The primary Senate sponsor of that bill, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, said on camera last week that the government "has not done a good job" preventing mentally ill people from acquiring weapons. How ironic.
Nearly every time that something like this happens, I attempt contact with the members of Congress who represent me. Sometimes I write e-mails, other times I use Twitter, but the results are always the same--responses rarely come, and when they do, they're filled with gobblety-gook about "protecting our citizens" and "preserving our heritage" and the customary reference to "thoughts and prayers," although we're not hearing as much of that as we sometimes do. Worth noting for those outside of my home area that these three men--Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Congressman Andy Barr--are all Republicans.
Google this: look up the list of politicians to whose campaigns the National Rifle Association has contributed. I found it enlightening.
It didn't escape my notice that the President, who was already on his way to his resort in south Florida for the President's Day weekend, stopped at the hospital where most of the victims were treated, as well as the local sheriff's office, and praised those medical professionals and first responders, and even met with groups of those people and posed for "thumbs-up" photos in both locations.
To my knowledge, he did NOT encounter any of the groups of students and other citizens holding public rallies. Or attend any funerals or memorial services.
In fairness, the President did address the nation on Thursday, reading a statement about the incident and how we as a country are there for the victims and their families and that we need to make our nation safer.
But since that time he has also managed to chastise the FBI for failing to pass forward reports about the alleged shooter that the FBI received, claiming they were too busy with what he persists in calling the "Russian collusion witch hunt" to investigate.
We know that's not at all true, but we also know that Friday the special counsel who is investigating what he continues to call a "hoax" handed down specific indictments related to direct interference by thirteen Russian individuals. These indictees will never see the inside of American courtrooms, but it's the clearest definition of the Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, so that, and not the 18th school shooting in the first six weeks of 2018, continues to be top of mind of our President.
I wish that all of the Sunday morning political shows would feature some of these students who are speaking with such passion and fervor about how our government is letting us down. They're the ones being shot at, it seems, so having them speak directly to some of the people in Congress who are in a position to act only makes sense.
Seventeen students and staff members were killed and numerous others were injured in the attack. As has been the case multiple times in the past, the perpetrator appears to be a former student with a history of behavioral issues and numerous warning signs that something like this was possible.
To me, the difference with this incident is that many of the students are speaking out about the need for someone to do something. These students articulate the frustration that so many of us feel in the face of these events, that there must be SOMETHING we as a society can do. I applaud these students and parents for their statements and hope that they don't let up, now that they have captured the media's attention.
Worth noting here that last February Congress passed a law--and President Trump quietly signed it--that made it easier for those with mental illness to obtain guns, reversing a law that was enacted under President Obama. The primary Senate sponsor of that bill, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, said on camera last week that the government "has not done a good job" preventing mentally ill people from acquiring weapons. How ironic.
Nearly every time that something like this happens, I attempt contact with the members of Congress who represent me. Sometimes I write e-mails, other times I use Twitter, but the results are always the same--responses rarely come, and when they do, they're filled with gobblety-gook about "protecting our citizens" and "preserving our heritage" and the customary reference to "thoughts and prayers," although we're not hearing as much of that as we sometimes do. Worth noting for those outside of my home area that these three men--Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Congressman Andy Barr--are all Republicans.
Google this: look up the list of politicians to whose campaigns the National Rifle Association has contributed. I found it enlightening.
It didn't escape my notice that the President, who was already on his way to his resort in south Florida for the President's Day weekend, stopped at the hospital where most of the victims were treated, as well as the local sheriff's office, and praised those medical professionals and first responders, and even met with groups of those people and posed for "thumbs-up" photos in both locations.
To my knowledge, he did NOT encounter any of the groups of students and other citizens holding public rallies. Or attend any funerals or memorial services.
In fairness, the President did address the nation on Thursday, reading a statement about the incident and how we as a country are there for the victims and their families and that we need to make our nation safer.
But since that time he has also managed to chastise the FBI for failing to pass forward reports about the alleged shooter that the FBI received, claiming they were too busy with what he persists in calling the "Russian collusion witch hunt" to investigate.
We know that's not at all true, but we also know that Friday the special counsel who is investigating what he continues to call a "hoax" handed down specific indictments related to direct interference by thirteen Russian individuals. These indictees will never see the inside of American courtrooms, but it's the clearest definition of the Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election, so that, and not the 18th school shooting in the first six weeks of 2018, continues to be top of mind of our President.
I wish that all of the Sunday morning political shows would feature some of these students who are speaking with such passion and fervor about how our government is letting us down. They're the ones being shot at, it seems, so having them speak directly to some of the people in Congress who are in a position to act only makes sense.
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