Via Wikipedia.
By Elliott Brack
Editor and Publisher, GwinnettForum
MAY 5, 2023 | As mass shootings mount in our country, one problem is that they take place all over this vast United States. That makes it difficult to raise concentrated fury against this menace when they erupt.
Wednesday, in broad daylight, this time right in downtown Atlanta, there was another senseless shooting. Quick work by police captured the shooter.
Almost daily in our nation first one report comes in after another of mass shootings. We keep asking ourselves, “When will it end?”
We might better be asking, “When will the next shooting be?” Another will surely come, and relatively quickly. So far this year in just 124 days, there were 192 mass shootings in the nation, according to GunViolenceArchive.org. We just hope in future shootings are few hurt, and the shooters are caught.
Crazies with weapons continue to harm our nation. So far, no area has successfully tackled the problem. The shootings break out almost daily. Where will the next be? It could be your neighborhood. None of us are entirely safe from those with guns.
We in the United States will continue to live in nothing less than “gun terrorism” as long as the National Rifle Association keeps up its pressure on the Congress and state legislatures, not allowing them even to consider reasonable gun laws. Anticipating that the Congress will show backbone on this issue is a fantasy.
Expecting reasonable gun precautions, and no more shootings, is beginning to feel like whistling in the wind. Can nothing be done to curtail this continuous menace?
The biggest obstacle to enacting reasonable gun laws immediately is that these outbursts are not concentrated in any one area, but are widespread throughout the country. And because of the vast spread of the shootings, only a few dedicated people in each community get mad enough to try to take action. If all these infuriated people could come together, perhaps we could anticipate some movement on this serious problem.
It may be a stretch to think of shooting in relation to the war in Vietnam. But consider: Back then (1959-1975) the Defense Department policy was to assign troops to Vietnam to serve for only one year, then return home, as replacements arrived. But the replacements, too, served only one year, then rotated back to the States. In his two books about the Vietnam war, I’m Ready To Talk, Author Robert O. Babcock called Vietnam “sixteen one year wars.”
During World War II, troops served for the duration of the war. That way, there were experienced soldiers fighting the war, and they could brief replacements. But in Vietnam, by the time a warrior gained experience, he was sent home, and fresh troops arrived. That new soldier had to stumble through what the one departing had learned.
When mass shootings take place, that incident is similar to a new arrival in Vietnam. A community will get outraged like other communities experiencing mass shootings. But all these different far-flung communities never come together to tackle this menace that is, how to end these shootings? So, we get 192 mass shootings so far this year, but 192 communities reacting individually, not together.
The varied geographic distances between mass shooting’s works against our nation. Advocates for curtailing mass shootings need to come together in a concerted uprising against this menace, similar to what the MADD (“Mothers Against Drunk Driving”) did earlier. This unified effort is sorely needed to turn this problem around.
- Have a comment? Send to: elliott@brack.net
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