Tonight’s post is going to stray a bit from our regularly scheduled programming. Well, let’s be honest: It’s going to stray a lot a bit. And be very ranty. And political. And probably enraging. Because right now, I’m all those things.
This year is a mere 46 days old, and we’ve already suffered 71 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive which defines a mass shooting as “FOUR or more shot and/or killed in a single event [incident], at the same general time and location not including the shooter.” The latest one to crack the news cycle was a high-profile disturbance on the Michigan State campus. You can look up the details on your own, if you must. What I want to focus on is the response from politicians.
We’re way past the “don’t politicize” stage at this point. If we waited for a set amount of days to allow for grieving and remembrance before we start talking about practical and political solutions, we’d never talk about them. Seventy-one mass shooting in 46 days‽ When would we find the time? So, instead, I’m carving out the time right now. With a nod to Swift, here’s my “Gun Violence Political Response Modest Proposal”.
After past shootings and deaths, lawmakers from around the country, especially those representing the districts where the shooting occurred, predictably issue statements of sadness and sympathy and, occasionally, personal grief. Rarely, they say exactly what so many of us feel.
And with inspiration from Michigan State House Majority Whip, Ranjeev Puri, I came up with this idea: Elected politicians have a quota for issuing “thoughts and prayers”.
From now on, after each election, our legislators have a finite amount of times they get to offer their “thoughts and prayers” for victims of mass shootings. And we’re not playing around with those trying to get around the limit by instead using “deepest sympathies” or sending “heartfelt condolences” or even trying “prayers and thoughts”. If your office issues a sympathetic statement after a mass shooting, you’ve used up one of your allotted Condolence Counts™. Let’s say we start with a dozen for each of them. I mean, goodgawd, that already seems like 11 too many.
“But Stephen,” you may be protesting, “how are they going to get through the year with only a 12?” I’m glad you asked. If our lawmakers run out, or just need more, they have to earn them. They can get one additional Condolence Count™ awarded any time a gun control law they sponsor gets enacted. They can’t just add their name to a bill, though; it has to get signed into law. That means they have to lobby for it. And bargain with their colleagues. And do all the bullshit horse trading they do every day they’re in session now to pass all those bills their favorite donors or close ALEC allies ask for. They want to send more “thoughts and prayers”? They better get to work!
For more than 60 years, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of injury-related death among young people. Beginning in 2017, however, firearm-related injuries took their place to become the most common cause of death from injury.
And that’s just deaths for people under 18. But it’s obvious we don’t really care about kids. Not after Parkland. Or Sutherland Springs. Or Umpqua. Or Marysville Pilchuck. Or UCSB. Santa Monica. Or Virginia Tech. Or Oikos. Or Northern Illinois. Or West Nickel Mines. Or Red Lake. Or Columbine. Or Sandy Hook. And these are just the school shootings I put together in a Tweet from November of 2017 — I don’t have the stomach to add the ones which have happened since.
So, if we don’t care about kids, what about veterans? Do you know how many veterans take their own life every day? A report released in September of last year put that number at 17. And 71% of those did it with a firearm. That’s 4,418 gun deaths in 2020 that may have been avoided if we did something about the easy access to guns.
I could go on, but my blood pressure can’t take much more of this tonight. I will leave you with one more anecdote, though. Years ago, just before the 2016 election, I was discussing the Second Amendment with a friend of mine who owned guns. In his view, it’s his Constitutional right to bear arms. And he’s right. It is. But I asked him if it’s worth the price. He didn’t really understand the question. So, I asked again, but more pointedly, “How many dead kids are acceptable to you so that you can exercise this right to keep and bear arms?” We haven’t talked much since. But looking at that question today, we know: 10,186. That’s how many kids died of firearm-related injuries in 2020. That’s just one cost of gun ownership. To ask the same question Michigan State students are asking, how many more?
If you’re having thoughts of suicide, please know that there is help. You can call or text the nationwide Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number, 988, or start a chat at 988lifeline.org, anytime.
If you’re looking to do more about preventing gun violence, I recommend getting involved with one of more of these groups:
Gun
15 February 2023
Knot one more.
Tonight’s post is going to stray a bit from our regularly scheduled programming. Well, let’s be honest: It’s going to stray a lot a bit. And be very ranty. And political. And probably enraging. Because right now, I’m all those things.
This year is a mere 46 days old, and we’ve already suffered 71 mass shootings, according to the Gun Violence Archive which defines a mass shooting as “FOUR or more shot and/or killed in a single event [incident], at the same general time and location not including the shooter.” The latest one to crack the news cycle was a high-profile disturbance on the Michigan State campus. You can look up the details on your own, if you must. What I want to focus on is the response from politicians.
We’re way past the “don’t politicize” stage at this point. If we waited for a set amount of days to allow for grieving and remembrance before we start talking about practical and political solutions, we’d never talk about them. Seventy-one mass shooting in 46 days‽ When would we find the time? So, instead, I’m carving out the time right now. With a nod to Swift, here’s my “Gun Violence Political Response Modest Proposal”.
After past shootings and deaths, lawmakers from around the country, especially those representing the districts where the shooting occurred, predictably issue statements of sadness and sympathy and, occasionally, personal grief. Rarely, they say exactly what so many of us feel.
And with inspiration from Michigan State House Majority Whip, Ranjeev Puri, I came up with this idea: Elected politicians have a quota for issuing “thoughts and prayers”.
From now on, after each election, our legislators have a finite amount of times they get to offer their “thoughts and prayers” for victims of mass shootings. And we’re not playing around with those trying to get around the limit by instead using “deepest sympathies” or sending “heartfelt condolences” or even trying “prayers and thoughts”. If your office issues a sympathetic statement after a mass shooting, you’ve used up one of your allotted Condolence Counts™. Let’s say we start with a dozen for each of them. I mean, goodgawd, that already seems like 11 too many.
“But Stephen,” you may be protesting, “how are they going to get through the year with only a 12?” I’m glad you asked. If our lawmakers run out, or just need more, they have to earn them. They can get one additional Condolence Count™ awarded any time a gun control law they sponsor gets enacted. They can’t just add their name to a bill, though; it has to get signed into law. That means they have to lobby for it. And bargain with their colleagues. And do all the bullshit horse trading they do every day they’re in session now to pass all those bills their favorite donors or close ALEC allies ask for. They want to send more “thoughts and prayers”? They better get to work!
It’s past time we did something about guns in this country. It’s the leading cause of death for American children, furchrissakes!
For more than 60 years, motor vehicle crashes were the leading cause of injury-related death among young people. Beginning in 2017, however, firearm-related injuries took their place to become the most common cause of death from injury.
And that’s just deaths for people under 18. But it’s obvious we don’t really care about kids. Not after Parkland. Or Sutherland Springs. Or Umpqua. Or Marysville Pilchuck. Or UCSB. Santa Monica. Or Virginia Tech. Or Oikos. Or Northern Illinois. Or West Nickel Mines. Or Red Lake. Or Columbine. Or Sandy Hook. And these are just the school shootings I put together in a Tweet from November of 2017 — I don’t have the stomach to add the ones which have happened since.
So, if we don’t care about kids, what about veterans? Do you know how many veterans take their own life every day? A report released in September of last year put that number at 17. And 71% of those did it with a firearm. That’s 4,418 gun deaths in 2020 that may have been avoided if we did something about the easy access to guns.
I could go on, but my blood pressure can’t take much more of this tonight. I will leave you with one more anecdote, though. Years ago, just before the 2016 election, I was discussing the Second Amendment with a friend of mine who owned guns. In his view, it’s his Constitutional right to bear arms. And he’s right. It is. But I asked him if it’s worth the price. He didn’t really understand the question. So, I asked again, but more pointedly, “How many dead kids are acceptable to you so that you can exercise this right to keep and bear arms?” We haven’t talked much since. But looking at that question today, we know: 10,186. That’s how many kids died of firearm-related injuries in 2020. That’s just one cost of gun ownership. To ask the same question Michigan State students are asking, how many more?
If you’re having thoughts of suicide, please know that there is help. You can call or text the nationwide Suicide & Crisis Lifeline number, 988, or start a chat at 988lifeline.org, anytime.
If you’re looking to do more about preventing gun violence, I recommend getting involved with one of more of these groups:
The Alliance for Gun Responsibility
Brady
Everytown for Gun Safety Action
Giffords
The Gun Safety Alliance
March for Our Lives
Moms Demand Action
Sandy Hook Promise
See you tomorrow?