After Parkland, Senate Action is Necessary
This Valentine's Day, Nikolas Cruz attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida with a legally purchased semi-automatic AR-15 rifle. 17 teachers and students were killed. Immediately afterward, congressmen and women sent out messages of condolence.
After mass shootings, our government always goes through the same ineffective cycle of processing the incidents. The Democratic Party calls for stronger anti-gun laws. The Republican Party says to stop politicizing tragedy. We all give our condolences, send out a few angry Tweets and eventually move on. But we never stop and think what politicizing tragedy actually means.
There is a difference between your right to own guns for hunting and protection and your right to own AR-15’s. AR-15’s are only used for mass murder and target practice.
After the Vegas shooting, Hillary Clinton said we must “put politics aside, stand up to the NRA.” Mitch McConnell blamed the “heartless hack” for politicizing the situation, calling it “inappropriate” and “premature.”
Every time Democrats bring up gun laws after a tragedy, they are shut down. Yet after the Orlando shooting and other shootings by Muslims, Republicans claim that it’s Islamic extremism causing these deaths. Yet, the shooter at Parkland wasn’t Muslim. He was a Trump supporter with an affinity for “Make America Great Again” hats. Republicans refuse to address this. They also refuse to acknowledge that their precious guns had anything to do with it.
In Florida, a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle is easier to buy than a handgun. It’s been used for shootings in Parkland, Aurora, Las Vegas, Sandy Hook, San Bernardino and more. Just after the Parkland shooting, reporter Laura Ingraham on Fox News said AR-15’s are “popular and overwhelmingly safe.”
There is a difference between your right to own guns for hunting and protection and your right to own AR-15’s. AR-15’s are only used for mass murder and target practice. But when Democrats bring that up, it’s called “politicizing tragedy.” If the Civil Rights Movement was labeled “politicizing tragedy” whenever black citizens were brutally murdered, we would not have come this far in the fight against racism. If feminism movements were labeled as politicizing tragedy whenever they pushed for legislation after a woman was raped, we wouldn’t be this far in the fight against misogyny. What makes gun control so different?
Politics is about seeing tragedy, calling it out and developing legislation to prevent it from occurring again. You are supposed to politicize tragedy. That’s the only way to protect others from it.
The Parkland survivors and loved ones of those affected by gun violence understand this. They saw their friends, peers and teachers shot and killed before their eyes. The night after the shooting, a vigil took place and students chanted “no more guns.” Students wrote op-eds, one of which is published in The New York Times, and made speeches. In upcoming weeks, there are multiple marches and walkouts planned. Florida state legislators refused to consider a gun control bill that student survivors from Parkland presented to them. The survivors of the shooting are speaking out because they have to. Their friends are dead. Their teachers are dead. Some of their peers are still in the hospital, weeks from full recovery. They are sad. They are in mourning. But, they are also politicizing their tragedy. If they don’t, nothing will get done and more lives will be lost.
As Sarah Chadwick, a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas, said on the day of the shooting in response to President Trump’s Tweet expressing sorrow, “I don’t want your condolences, you f**king piece of s**t; my friends and teachers were shot. Multiple of my fellow classmates are dead. Do something instead of sending prayers. Prayers won’t fix this. But gun control will prevent it from happening again.”