This is the urgent life and death question poised by Connecticut Senator, Chris Murphy, a day after a sick 18 year-old executed 19 children and 2 teachers in Uvalde, Texas. Uvalde is a small town of 15,000 , an hour west of San Antonio. Yesterday it was unknown. Now its name will live as infamy along with Newtown, Connecticut (Sandy Hook), Parkland, Florida, and Columbine, Colorado.
Yesterday’s was the 27th school shooting this year. But that’s not the worst fact. We’re 133 days into 2022, but have already had 198 mass shootings. Read the list. Yesterday’s child extermination came 10 days after another demented 18 year old massacred 10 black patrons of a Buffalo supermarket. In between, a 68 year-old nut bag killed 1 and maimed five Taiwanese — in a California church. That was nine days ago. Five days back, eight were shot and two killed at a McDonald’s in Chicago.
That’s 46 lives ended or permanently scared in 10 days.
None of us is immune. Being a top NY Times reporter and daughter of then Connecticut Senator, Abraham Ribicoff, didn’t spare my good friend — Sarai Ribicoff — from being murdered in Venice, CA on November 13, 1980. Her death has scared and pained me for 42 years. It will do so till I die. When President Biden speaks of empty chairs at the table, far too many of us know what he means.
What Are We Doing?
The devil is loose in the land and is coming to get us whether we live in small or large communities, whether we are 8 months old or 78 years old, whether we are black or white or green or pink, whether we attended Harvard University or Doane College, whether we are Baptist or Jewish, whether we are a Republican or a Democrat, whether we are rich or poor, and whether we are a child, grandchild, spouse, brother, sister, parent, or grandparent.
Will it take the death of their own children or grandchildren to get our Do Nothing Congress to act?
The Second Amendment is sacred, but the right to bear arms is not unlimited. No one has the right to own an Abrams Battle Tank. But we’re not talking about limiting the right of sane people to bear arms. We’re talking, in part, about checking if the person buying guns is sane.
As Warriors coach Steve Kerr put it, “There are 50 Senators who refuse to vote on HR8 — a gun background check bill.” Ninety percent of us want background checks. … They won’t vote on it because they want to hold onto their power. … It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough.”
Senator McConnell, this is on you. Your grandchild needs protection. Susan Collins, this is on you. Your children need protection. Senator Rubio, this is on you. Your parents need protection. Senator Cruz, this is on you. Your brother and sister need protection. And to the other 46 Senate opponents of background checks, this is on you.
But background checks is just the beginning of what we need to do. We need federal marshals placed in every school, we need every high school student to have routine meetings with guidance counselors and psychologists to assess their mental health, we need random assignment of federal marshals in churches, mosques, synagogues, stores, movie theaters, restaurants, buses — you name it. And we need every school to have doors with metal detectors that require electric passes, so stray killers can’t just walk into a classroom, lock the door, and open fire.
What Are We Doing?
We are doing nothing. It’s time for Mitch McConnell to care more about his loved ones and less about himself. It’s that simple. It’s time for him to work for God and not the Devil.
Laurence Kotlikoff is a Boston University Economist, a NY Times Best Selling Author, President of maxifi.com, and Author of Money Magic.
100% correct Larry. How many more deaths need to occur before our “do nothing” government (Senate), decides to take the first step in corrective legislation?
You are brave to make these comments knowing that so many people will claim that we can't do anything even thought all other countries in the world do not have a mass shooting problem. You would think seeing so many little kids torn to pieces with an AR15 they would have some spot in their heart to support people trying to stop it. Let me be clear, we have 3 guns in our home, not because I want to play with them but I feel it is a necessity in this country to have guns to protect against so many others with guns. I have a solution to the mass shooting problem and I hope that this idea gains some traction. The problem is that with every shooting, the media calls the killer the 'shooter' or the 'gunman'. It is this glorified description that drives them. If we all started referring to the person as the 'coward', this shit would stop. The news report should be ' the coward entered the school and shot unarmed kids'. The coward entered the Walmart and shot unarmed people'. You see it is our cultural description of the people who do these mass shootings that continues to feed the culture. We all need to call these murders what they are - cowards.