When Will We Ever Learn?
15/02/23 05:02
February 15, 2023 (Vol. 17 No. 11) - We have once gain tragically witnessed the consequences of America's callous and reckless attitudes toward guns. Just this week, there's been yet another mass casualty shooting at a school - this time at Michigan State University. However, truth be told, we have now raised a generation of children from pre-school to graduate school that faces the very real possibility that they will be gunned down in their classroom. According to The Washington Post, there have been more than 600 mass shootings since January 2022. That's an average of more than one each day. That is an obscenity. No one is threatening the repeal of the Second Amendment. I do not object to gun ownership, per se. But I do object to the reckless sale of military style assault weapons with high-volume ammunition magazines. As President Joe Biden pointed out in his recent State of the Union Address, this country once had a ban on assault weapons. And guess what? It worked. No one's constitutional rights were violated and the number of mass casualty shootings dramatically decreased. However, the ban was allowed to expire and our schools have, once again, become a shooting gallery. In what universe does that make any sense? As you may be aware, I have recently published my first fiction novel, Thirteen Minutes: Death of an American High School. It is about the causes and effects of a school shooting in a rural community. The story may come from my imagination, but the scenario that is played out is based on what has happened too many times in real life. I don't expect to make a lot of money on the book. That's not why I wrote it. I wrote it to shed some light on a very dark subject. Every time I see that there's been another shooting, I think of the great Pete Seeger's 1955 composition Where Have all the Flowers Gone? It is a song about the futility of war. With a few minor lyrical changes, it could also be be a warning siren about the need for gun reform. Just as wars come and go in a seemingly endless cycle, so does gun violence. And as the song hauntingly repeats at the end of each verse, "When will we ever learn?" That's it for now. Fear the Turtle. (Photo courtesy AP)