It has been 13 years since the murders at Columbine High School, when two teenagers killed 13 people and wounded 21 others. Since that time, ABC reports, there have been 31 school shootings.
When something happens that overwhelms our emotions – as when a shooter murders 20 schoolchildren in cold blood- we get dizzy and out of balance. The shock and horror are too much to take.
Looking for ways to explain America’s epidemic of mass shootings — including Friday’s murder of 27 people, including 20 children, at a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school – many pundits are blaming the country’s “culture of violence” and its preference for “protecting guns over children.” But the majority of Americans favor strict gun control laws. No, let\’s not burden Americans with collective guilt. The problem is more narrow — and more fixable — than that.
When news of the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School first broke, President Barack Obama stood before the nation, felt our grief and shed a tear.
\”This afternoon, I spoke with Governor Malloy and FBI Director Mueller. I offered Gov. Malloy my condolences on behalf of the nation and made it clear he will have every single resource that he needs to investigate this heinous crime, care for the victims, counsel their families.\”
Reform and Conservative rabbinical leaders called for increased gun controls in the wake of a spate of shootings.
It is a given among liberal and progressive Jews that gun ownership among the general population is a bad thing. The ideal is near-universal disarmament with only a handful of individual exceptions and, of course, the police.
The National Rifle Association (NRA) claims it exists to protect our rights. My question is this: Who will protect us from the NRA?
I\’d like to preface this long tweet by saying that my passion comes from my deepest sympathy and shared sorrow with yesterday\’s victims and with the utmost respect for the people and the police/fire/medical/political forces of Aurora and all who seek to comfort and aid these victims.
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