We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
It was a moderate spring evening when I first saw the video loop of high school students fleeing their buildings. The scrawl at the bottom of the TV screen gave the developing details as the shock crept in.
Columbine was unthinkable.
I didn’t understand why or how something like this could happen at a high school in America. We’d seen Timothy McVeigh unleash holy terror in Oklahoma City. I didn’t understand. In 1984 America watched 21 people die at a McDonald’s in San Diego, CA. I didn’t understand. Columbine wasn’t the first nor would it be the last.
I still don’t understand.
Newtown was supposed to be the final one.
So was Vegas.
So was Parkland.
Aurora.
Uvalde.
Buffalo.
I don’t understand.
Each time I have personally asked, “at what point will it be enough?” and each time it is answered with, “the second amendment!”
I don’t understand.
Each time one of these events happens, we, citizens of the U.S., cling tighter to the tools that are used in these events. Each time we hear the same political talking points. Each time prayers are the answer to what to do.
I don’t understand.
We are guaranteed the right to bear arms. We are not, however, guaranteed the right to live. If we were, there would be an amendment for it. A good guy with a gun did not save the children of Uvalde or the students of Parkland. But we are guaranteed the right to bear arms and not the right to live.
I don’t understand.
As of this writing, in Ukraine 14,200 people have died so far in the invasion from Russia. In the U.S., 22,607 Americans have died from gun related deaths in 2022. We have the right to bear arms, not to live.
I don’t understand.
July 4th has now been marked as a day when the right to bear arms was more important than the right to live. July 4th is now just another day in America.
I don’t understand.