Another day, another shooting.
America is a war zone. It is in love with guns. Shootings everywhere within these United States: in the streets, churches, synagogues, supermarkets, banks and worst of all, in schools.
Three adults and three children became victims at Nashville’s Covenant School in late March. Less than two weeks later a perpetrator opened fire in a Louisville bank armed with an assault rifle purchased just one week before the attack, killing five people.
Every sane person has said enough ad infinitum regarding these massacres. Adults and children’s lives brutally cut short by willful, senseless violence. As of April 2023, 146 mass shootings have been recorded. However, make no mistake about it, massacre or single death, one death due to gun violence is one death too many.
My heart goes out to all those who have suffered yet another unfathomable shooting. For that matter, we are all suffering whether we have been personally affected or not.
I am speaking as a mother and a survivor. My child, a single working mother,a was murdered in 2008 by a teenage burglar in possession of a stolen handgun. I had been a lifelong gun safety advocate before her murder. I had worked on gun safety legislation and supported Carolyn McCarthy’s congressional candidacy after her husband was shot in the 1993 Long Island Rail Road massacre. After years of being an advocate, my family was dealt the hardest blow. I now had a vested interest after my daughter’s murder.
It is ludicrous to think that after I spent so many years fighting for gun gun safety measures that our family also suffered the loss of a loved one. This country is truly in the midst of an epidemic. Our society has become immune to hearing about this daily violence. After each shooting, visions erupt once again of how I felt on that fateful day.
I belong to a club I do not want to belong to. Tragically, all of those who followed me in the loss of a loved one due to gun violence have become members of the same club.
In 2012, four years after our daughter’s murder, I was invited to make a statement at the Connecticut Commission on Gun Violence following the Sandy Hook massacre. I was put in a room with several grieving parents. One of those parents came over to me, put her arms around me and said, “I can’t stop crying.” My response, was “you have to, it is part of the grieving process.”
I had been there and the emotional upheaval was tantamount to a mountain being raised.
Yet assault rifles still exist for those perpetrators to commit mass murders.
After a shooting, blame is often given to the shooter’s mental state. What is the real cause? The gun.
Gun violence is a four-pronged issue. It is political, legislative, health-related and human. Why have we not banned assault rifles? Both the Nashville and Louisville shooters easily purchased that weaponry.
Politically, it is heartbreaking to read headlines such as: “Republican Lawmakers Downplay Push for Gun Control after Nashville School Shooting.” One GOP representative said that he “prays” for the victims and their families after the Nashville massacre. He appeared incensed, claiming people “politicize” the shooting “for their own personal agenda.”
However, that GOP representative is correct on one score. The gun violence issue is not nor should it be political. It is a human factor. I would even venture to ask how the GOP representative would feel if any of his loved ones became a victim? And, unfortunately, we know how much prayers have helped to stop these shootings.
Regrettably, America is never going to rid itself of guns. Maybe if we adopted the phrase, “gun safety” rather than “gun control,” perhaps we could begin to have valid talking points with gun advocates.
Strides have been made in gun safety legislation. For example, President Joe Biden has signed into federal law measures such as crisis intervention programs, which include background checks and “red flag” laws. Regrettably, that legislation has not been enacted in Tennessee and Kentucky. Northwell Health system has admirably publicized gun safety measures. Their televised ads with actors clearly demonstrate the importance of having a gun safely stored in a home.
It is imperative. More needs to be done.
My feelings are personal but they also consider others like me who have suffered such devastating losses. As a nation, we can make changes. It starts with voting for candidates who respect the continuance of human lives.
Lois Schaffer
Great Neck