Our elected leaders are failing us. And nothing is being done.
We’ve become almost numb. Seemingly every week we hear about yet another shooting at a school, or a church, or a business here in the U.S. We see horrific photos and videos of students hiding in fear, being marched out of classrooms with their hands over their heads, or see crumbled bodies lying where they fell, their lives taken in a brief, brutal moment of violence.
There are the usual responses of anguish and confusion. The news channels are filled with solemn faces talking about everything from mental illness to “thoughts and prayers”. And yet, nothing ever gets done.
And why should anything be done? Sure, poll after poll show a majority of Americans support tightening up the laws over gun ownership, and yet not only do our elected “leaders” do nothing about it, they, in fact, pass laws that make it easier for the mentally ill to purchase weapons, and make it easier for everyone to carry weapons with them everywhere they go, concealed from the eyes of those around them.
And why do they do that? Because of money. The National Rifle Association has long abandoned its original purpose of helping to educate an armed populace on the use (and dangers) of owning firearms and devolved into an unthinking and immoral organization that fetishes guns and gun ownership with a cult like fervor that brooks no argument, no challenge, and no care or concern for the thousands upon thousands (upon thousands) of those injured and killed by the very firearms they worship.
Statements like “it’s a mental health issue” are cynical smokescreens to avoid the cold, brutal truth: we, as a nation, simply have far too many guns in the hands of far too many unstable people. And with those same “leaders” doing everything in their power to cut funding for mental health, their hypocrisy is especially abhorrent.
Far too many people try to find common ground, to be “fair” and “even-handed” when debating gun control. They feel they are taking the high road, when in fact they are playing into the very hands of the immoral.
Let’s call it what it is: blood money. Every dollar our elected representatives take from the NRA is drenched in the blood of the victims of places like Douglas High School in Florida, of the Sutherland Springs First Baptist Church in Texas, and of the countless other sites of gun violence and death.
According the Washington Post, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) has taken $14,850 from the NRA. Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) has taken $9,900. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN), who allegedly represents us in the House of Representatives, has taken $6,000. And leading the pack here in Tennessee is Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R) who is running for Senate and has pocketed $32,500.
Every single dollar they’ve taken is soaked in the blood of the fallen. No thoughts and no prayers can clean that money. They take the money because they understand something frightening yet true: dead children don’t vote.
And nothing changes. As long as the NRA is willing to buy themselves a Congress of cowards, children will die. Adults will die. Good people will die. And that is unacceptable.
Call your “leaders”. Email them. Write to them. Call them out on social media. Do whatever it takes to let them know that trading blood for money is no longer acceptable.