How many times

Woke this morning to the horrifying news out of Las Vegas, the largest mass murder in the history of our country. I don’t understand how many times this has to happen before we (as a nation, a culture, and a government) do something about it.

This is the 273rd mass shooting this year in the United States, where a mass shooting is defined as there being four or more victims.

There have been over 11,000 deaths by gun violence in the U.S. in 2017, and the year is only 3/4 over.

I know these statistics will be broadcast all over the media, and tweeted, and Facebook posted endlessly – along with countless “thoughts and prayers” messages. Tweeting condolences doesn’t help. Me writing this probably won’t help.

I have to admit, I lost faith that our country would find a solution to this after Sandy Hook. It’s been four years since dozens of helpless, innocent children were murdered by a young man with a gun, and nothing happened. If that wasn’t the catalyst for change, I’m not sure if there will be one.

I fear (suspect, am pretty sure) that this shooting will get in line with Columbine, Virginia Tech, Pulse, and hundreds of other mass murders that we will look back at and say “why didn’t something change”?

I’m not the one who can say what has to change, but there are a lot of factors – a culture of anger, easy access to guns, lack in mental health care, meaningless or nonexistent gun control legislation, many things that have to change. But we have to start somewhere.

Legislation seems obvious, in a democracy that maybe is unwilling to keep accepting crowds of innocents being murdered. We can each do something to move that forward, if we care enough.

There have been other countries that have managed change – we all know in our hearts that the U.S. is uniquely special in our relationship with guns and the amount of gun violence that our American culture is willing to accept. But it is possible to change.

I’ve been interested in the past with what happened in Australia. Australians used to have easy access to guns, but a series of mass shootings (capped by the Port Arthur massacre) led to a fundamental change in Australian gun control laws. It’s a long history, but there is interesting information on it here: Gun laws in Australia.

I’m interested by what happened in Australia, because I think there are many parallels with our country and culture. Australians are people who enjoy their personal liberty as much as we do, and celebrate in individual choice. However, they were able to see the sense in passing universal gun control (at both the federal and state level), which has reduced the number of gun deaths by over 50% over the years.

There are people who will look at that and say “yeah, but 50% isn’t enough”. I don’t think there is such a thing as “isn’t enough” anymore. Wouldn’t it be something to have over 5,000 innocent people back? Wouldn’t it be worth it to have even one of those beautiful children from Sandy Hook back? How many times will it take before we, as a people, do something about this?

Pushing your legislators for real and effective gun control is a start. Many of them have held office through hundreds of mass murders, and done nothing. Hold them accountable. At least it’s a start.