This has been a long week
It's been a long week.
High profile shootings all over the Western world. 50 in the US, one in France and one in England.
As an American, you get used to hearing about gun violence. I grew up in the 1990's. A day didn't go by where there wasn't serious gang violence in the inner city but, as with everything, there's a difference when it hits home. For what its worth I once lived in Florida and the idea that 50 people could get massacred in Orlando was highly improbable but, because it is America, it was not impossible.
To have an MP shot THREE times and stabbed on the street in broad daylight was totally unbelievable or, so I thought.
Yet here we are. The day after Jo Cox MP was murdered on the streets of her constituency.
Jo Cox was one of those MPs that I've heard about and I’m sure I saw her in the corridors every now and again. For me, her claim to fame was that she lived on a houseboat on the Thames which meant, we lived in the same neighbourhood. Of course, her address was literally in the Thames and mine is a bit further inland.
As more information comes out about the person under arrest there are claims that he was a follower of American neo-nazi websites and ordered how-to books from those websites. This person still has not been charged.
In this week of serious shootings the Conservatives in America are once again rushing to the defence of the Second Amendment. Once again they repeat their argument that, "the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." despite the evidence to the contrary.
On June 14 Donald Trump even went as far to say that, "If you had guns in that room, even if you had a number of people having it strapped to your ankle or strapped to their waist, where bullets could have flown in the other direction right at him, you wouldn't have had the same kind of a tragedy,"
Don't be fooled. People are murdered with firearms here in the UK but, of all the homicides that were committed only seven percent were from guns which means out of the 646 homicides in 2011, 46 were from a firearm. In Scotland, the number was zero for the same year.
Meanwhile in America, we seemingly sit idly by as thousands are killed from guns every single year.
I have a problem thinking about my friends and family back home who are having to listen to people saying the equivalent of, “Thank God none of the guns were hurt in that attack!”
I despair for the thousands of families in America that have to deal with the effects of gun violence and see a public that refuse to deal with it time and time again.
The Republican nominee even went as far as to say (imply) that President Obama condoned and/or was happy to see the attacks in Orlando because he would not claim that “Radical Islam” was at fault for the attacks.
From what I understand, in the Orlando case, the shooter was a very angry person who claimed allegiance to three, contrary terrorist organisations. He’s as much a Muslim as Dylan Roof is a Christian.
Having watched the aftermath of massacre after massacre in the United States and, now senseless gun violence here, I have to ask supporters of the 2nd Amendment this question, “How many lives must be sacrificed before we can even BEGIN to change the law?”
To the National Rifle Association, Why is it easier to purchase a gun than your Eddie the Eagle costume?
These are serious questions that deserve serious answers. The US and the UK pride themselves on the values of freedom and democracy but when the NRA acts as a barrier to change they are a barrier to democracy. Using fear and division to insure their political dominance and prevent the creation of a safer America is inherently anti-American.
Today is the anniversary of the Charleston Church shootings. Today is the anniversary of the day that Dylan Roof walked into a church and murdered nine people. No one called him a Christian fundamentalist, no one linked the entirety of Christianity or white people to the act of one person. He was just considered a lone wolf that acted of his own anger and ignorance.
Within weeks the country moved on leaving Charleston behind. No laws changed, no real action taken.
Democracy is not a spectator sport. It is the hardest form of Government because it requires every member of society to stand up, pay attention and fight. It requires all of us to speak up and out for the kind of society that we desire. It is hard, tiring work that is, mostly thankless but, without democracy there is no freedom or liberty and that is worth that extra bit of energy.
This has been a long week. Let's hope next week will be better.
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