Gun Violence Reform (6/5/22)
Mass murders happen every day in this country. It is so commonplace that only a handful make it into a day’s news cycle. Our babies are being shot in their elementary schools and our family, friends, and neighbors are being murdered in their houses of worship, at grocery stores, and even at funerals. The shootings in Buffalo, Uvalde, and Tulsa recently have shaken many of us to the core. Tears stream as we imagine the children who left for school to learn and play but never came home to be tucked into their beds. We all see our kids, nieces, nephews, and grandchildren in those images. We cannot understand how we got to this place. A place that is unique only to the USA.
“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.” That is the Second Amendment in its entirety. How have we let a minority of gun fanatics use these few words to lead us to this moment? To quote Supreme Court Justice Robert Jackson, they have turned “the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact.” Mass murderers spray bullets daily in this country. The craziest part is that we have age limits, license requirements, and rules around so many other things yet an 18-year-old can buy an AR-15 with no training, license, or background check required and no one knows about it until it is too late.
One political party would have us barb wire our schools, arm teachers, and place swat teams around grocery stores. These plans are insane given that instead, we could adopt sensible gun reforms. No one needs an AR-15 and poll after poll shows that a large majority of Americans want red flag laws, background checks, gun sale loopholes closed, and bans on assault rifles. The disproportionate power of the rural states combined with the filibuster rule in the Senate has made sensible gun reform impossible on a federal level. It is maddening.
WE MUST TURN OUR OUTRAGE INTO ACTION!
While Congress has not managed to pass any meaningful gun safety legislation in years, Democratic-controlled state legislatures have passed bill after bill. Just this week, the New York State legislature passed sweeping gun legislature, including a common-sense measure to prevent anyone under 21 from purchasing or possessing a semi-automatic rifle like the kind that was used to commit the mass murder in Buffalo. Markers has talked a lot about the importance of state legislatures since our first giving circle formed in 2019. Most people we know have not been focused on local elections even in their own state let alone in other states. We committed to the long-term task of helping to flip state legislatures and now more than ever the work has become essential. Be outraged, cry, scream, and feel as if you have been punched in the stomach, but instead of becoming paralyzed, turn your outrage into action. Change doesn’t happen overnight and is never easy, but change can’t happen if we don’t try. It truly is time to march for our lives. We must donate to giving circles and organizations in the fight. We must protest, write postcards, join phone banks, and text banks. We must keep the conversation front and center and most importantly do everything in our power to get out the vote in November. It is never too late to activate your networks. The moment is now!