Monday, December 17, 2012

After mourning, action

This was something I posted on Facebook, but I'm putting it here to give it a more permanent home and to perhaps breathe some life into the blog again:

"The NRA is a mighty thing. But as mighty as it is, it is no match for the political power of the 'parent lobby' in this country. If we parents ever decided to take a stand between our children and the gun lobby, we would perhaps be shielding thousands of our kids from the deadly bullets yet to come."

If this is like other shootings, all of us will eventually abandon our rage and return to our day to day life, abandon this issue for others, and meanwhile the NRA will be on the hill and their zombies will emailing, writing letters, and calling their representatives every time the most innocuous gun legislation comes up for consideration. The politicians, both Republican and Democratic, will feel that it is not worth it to take on the gun lobby. And so it will continue until another twisted tortured young man decides to see if he can do even worse than Newton. And then we will wring out hands again and say, "why"?

Unless we grab this moment. The gun nuts know this is a dangerous moment for them. The NRA took down its Facebook page. Pro-gun senators were afraid to go on the Sunday talk shows (is it a surprise these people are cowards?). Let's keep them on the defensive. Let's be there when legislation comes up. Let's get the facts out there. Let's let those people who are not gun nuts but just misinformed know the real facts. Let's dominate the discourse by our numbers, our passion, our knowledge of the truth and what's at stake, and our love of our children. Let's save our country from the bloody gun culture which has soaked our homes, schools, and streets in innocent blood.

Who's with me?