ANOTHER WEEK OF SHOOTINGS

August Rodin, Despair. 1890

Another week of shootings in our beautiful country.  Two massacres within 24 hours, one in Texas, one in the Midwest.  Twenty-nine dead and fifth-three injured in less than a day.  In Ohio nine dead in less than a minute.  The shooter in El Paso left a hate-filled anti-immigrant manifesto.  The shooter in Dayton wore body armor and carried multiple rounds of ammunition.  How can we talk about anything else?  Nesting, blogging, mindfulness, "thoughts and prayers," against the obscenity of armed and enraged young men roaming our towns and shopping centers?  The right to keep and bear arms has become the right to kill anyone anytime any place for any reason. Walmart, that most American of institutions, has a body count.  The US Attorney for the Western District of Texas promises "swift and certain justice."  We tighten penalties instead of gun laws.  The United States Senate sits mute.  Only the candidates running for president call for change.  Trump plays golf.  Tweets substitute for action. 

I don't know if any other country needs to keep a gun violence archive.  I suspect not.  But we do.  We keep count of mass shootings where 4 or more people are shot or killed not counting the shooter.  We're up to 251 mass shootings in the 216 days of 2019. 

We have perfected our weapons,

Our conscience has fallen asleep. 

Pope Francis 

Grief continues but disbelief is no longer an option.  Lamentation isn't enough. So what can we do?  

We can't give up, that's certain.  We can campaign.  We can vote.  We can lobby.  Where we have the skills and training, we can help the troubled.  We can alert law enforcement.  We can organize, we can boycott, we can write. . . . 

Many well-established groups are fighting for what are called "sensible gun reforms."  Every one needs money and volunteers.  Here are just a few: 

The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence  (www.bradyunited.org) with 94 chapters across the US, named for Tom Brady who was wounded during the assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan. 

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (www.csgv.org) founded in 1974.  This group works with scientific experts to identify individuals at risk of violence towards themselves or others without stigmatizing mental illness. CSGV was the first prevention group to identify the NRA's dangerous interpretation of the Second Amendment. 

Every Town for Gun Safety Action Fund through secure.actblue.com, info@actblue.com, a registered charitable foundation formed to democratize social welfare giving. 

And the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (www.lawcenter.giffords.org) where legal experts research, write and defend laws proven to save lives from gun violence. 

What else?  We can raise the next generation to accept our diversity as our strength, we can teach by example.  I feel confident that each of us has skills that can be used to fight for a safer America. And when we need a respite from our activism, or from our fears, we can live simply, love nature, be mindful of each day, keep healthy attitudes and take the time to live well.  Nurturing ourselves and others that way is part and parcel of creating a mindset where the right to live safely outweighs all other competing rights.  We cannot despair.  

                                                                 Nina Naomi