Today, on a day when at least nine more young lives were snuffed out suddenly, horrifically and way prematurely by “humans” with guns in my home state, I – I am sure along with thousands of others – received this heartfelt letter from two persons who know the horror of gun fire.
Instead of offering the now-perfunctory “thoughts and prayers,” I would like to share their words with you.
For the students at Santa Fe High School, this should have been a joyous time of year.
Prom was last weekend. The Class of 2018 Sunset Dinner was yesterday evening and the varsity baseball team was set to play in the regional quarterfinals tonight. The last day of school is less than two weeks away.
Instead, after today’s school shooting in Texas, there have already been 22 school shootings where someone was hurt or killed this year alone — an average of more than one a week.
22.
How many times must we watch as terrified children are rushed away from a school while their parents rush toward the location desperate for information about their kids?
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The United States of America is the only developed nation in the world where these kinds of shootings happen with this type of frequency.
Congress knows how to solve this problem; all it takes is a little bit of courage — the courage to stand up to the gun lobby, the courage to do what’s right. But the truth is, every day they fail to act, they accept that this will happen again and again.
We saw an interview shortly after today’s shooting where a child was asked if there was a part of her that thought this wasn’t real, that it couldn’t be happening at her school.
Heartbreakingly, her response was that she was not surprised, because “It’s been happening everywhere; I’ve always felt eventually it was going to happen here too.”
A child…
Yet again, our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this shooting, their families, and their friends. But the truth is, for those who have the power to act and to save lives, thoughts and prayers are not nearly enough.
We do not have to accept these horrific acts of violence as routine, and we must never stop demanding that our leaders not only acknowledge this devastating problem, but take long overdue action to keep our children safe.
All our best,
The letter is written by Gabby Giffords and Mark Kelly and she they should know…
