And the Shooting Goes On

Remember way back in December 2012 when the Sandy Hook shooting had many Americans hankering for gun control laws? Like most things in the collective American memory, it is history largely forgotten. Since then there have been a number of other high profile shootings and, surprise, surprise, no action by Congress to do anything about it. Over the July 4th weekend, we can add another incident in Ohio, the accidental death of a child and a rampage of gun violence across Chicago to the list. In fact, the New York Daily News reported that since Newtown, at least 40 children under 12 have died in “accidental shootings,” either by themselves or from another child. And in Chicago last weekend, over 70 people were killed in shooting violence. On top of this is the ongoing Trayvon Martin case (Salon just reporting on a short lived video game app where kids could play a vengeful Trayvon marching through the streets of ghettos across America, exacting his revenge finally being lifted from the App Store), where the defense appears to be arguing that one can shoot a teenager in self-defense, if he is black and scares you (ok, not exactly, but Salon just reported on a short lived video game app where kids could play a vengeful Trayvon marching through the streets of ghettos across America, exacting his revenge and Fox News appears to have made it their life mission to defend Zimmerman no matter what the facts of the case). Gun violence has become such a part of American life that we just assume that accidents and mass shootings are now part of our lives. But should we? As with so many problems in American life today, we must demand action for Congress to do anything and really should – before this becomes such a dangerous place to live that we all start wearing pistols in our holsters and a run on replacement big toes destroys the sandal industry.