I am sitting in the Nashville airport, about to head out to a conference, and trying to bring myself to take some time to educate myself about the details of these latest domestic terror attacks. I seem unable to do it. I know I want to. I know I should. But all I can think about right now is Sandy Hook.
The images in my mind of children terrified and dying as yet another deranged gunman tore through the lives of the innocent haunt me every time another one of these shootings happen. I thought then, “Well maybe this time we will finally do it. We will pass laws that we know work. That we know save lives.”
And we didn’t.
That is what I find so hard about these latest rounds of mass shootings. We know we can stop them. At least in theory. But in practice, our democracy is almost totally dead. How else could a powerful lobbying organization sponsor of domestic terror overwhelm the will of the majority of Americans?
I don’t have something profound to say. I just have a hard time when I feel helpless. Maybe I can think of some kind of response — something to say — that amounts to more than, “Can we pass laws this time?” If we couldn’t do it with Sandy Hook, we just cannot do it. Maybe instead of focusing on the laws we need to pass, we need to turn our outrage against the NRA that keeps them from passing. Its ideology is no less radical, no less inflexible, and no less dangerous than ISIS/Daesh.
