Grieving is healthy; it’s an integral part of the healing process. But grieving — mourning — should not be a substitute for positive action, particularly with respect to gun violence.
However, with each mass shooting in America, it’s becoming increasingly clear that our political leadership — at least the conservative portion of it which controls the conversation on gun violence — is assured that after a brief period of mourning it’s right back to gun business as usual.
Indeed, the National Rifle Association, which has a majority of members of Congress and state legislatures on its payroll via political donations, is so confident that no action will be taken by lawmaking bodies that it no longer mounts any PR campaigns extolling the virtues of gun ownership or the dangers of tampering with the Second Amendment when a mass shooting occurs.
Crass politicians know that all of the vigils — the balloons, teddy bears, candles, flowers, and signs — serve as a safety valve of sorts, a means of allowing citizens to dissipate their anger, and thus mute the call for real change.
And politicians on the right are now twisting themselves into knots as they attempt to place the blame for the mass killings someplace other than where they squarely belong: The rise of white nationalist rhetoric emanating from the highest office in the land over the last few years.
Of course, anyone who goes on a shooting rampage is obviously mentally ill, but we know there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people tottering on the edge of sanity in this country and all it takes is a nudge to push them over the edge. And with the number of guns already in the hands of hundreds of millions of citizens, I’m afraid banning them will not solve the problem.
We have to demand that our political leaders stop with the coded hate speech that pushes fragile people over the edge thus causing the mayhem.
From CoolCleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author at http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.