Randi Kreiss

Seven more Americans died while we fiddled

Posted

Dylan’s mom and Daniel’s dad write to me often. In truth, I dread reading their emails; their words darken the day. But how wrenching it must be to write those words.

These parents are leaders of the Sandy Hook Promise Foundation, which works for stricter gun-control laws. They are victims of the tragedy, both having lost first-graders to the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Their work is pure and heroic — trying to find a slender thread of hope in the heap of terrible grief that has consumed their lives.

They write to me, and millions of others, to garner support for laws that would prevent another mass shooting, or at least reduce the odds. But I can’t see much progress. What I do see is a national obsession with trivial issues, preposterous politicians and sensational media rants that pre-empt rational discussion. We’ve been dazed by weeks of debate over small hands and small minds, sexual escapades and secret emails.

As I write this, over the last 72 hours alone, 25 people were shot across America, and seven died. In an average year in this country, guns kill 30,000 people. This information comes from the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit corporation formed in 2013 to offer free online public access to information about gun-related violence in the U.S.

The group’s mission is “to document incidents of gun violence and gun crime, to provide raw, verified data to those who need to use it in their research, advocacy or writing.” The group taps more than 1,500 media, law enforcement, government and commercial outlets daily to provide data about gun violence in America.

When 20 little kids and six adults were murdered at Sandy Hook Elementary and no serious gun control was enacted, it was more than disheartening. The legal gridlock effectively proved the ruthless power of the National Rifle Association.

Since the massacre, which was remarkable for the numbers of innocent children shot and killed, there have been plenty of other mass shootings. They don’t even make the front pages anymore. Often they don’t get a headline.

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