Grieving for Grace

AR-15 Rifle: courtesy New York Times

“The notion that two months or three months after something as horrific as what happened in Newtown happens and we've moved on to other things? That’s not who we are. That’s not who we are.”

~ President Barack Obama, March 28, 2013

I've said it before and I’ll say it again: I don’t want my four kids slaughtered at school by a nutcase with an automatic weapon. I don’t want any more youngsters to be shot – not at school, at home, on the playground, at the mall, at their friend’s house...not anywhere. No more. Something must be done.

I was at two schools this past week – my son’s middle school and the elementary school that my two youngest attend – to watch students perform in talent shows. This year, in addition to thinking, “That girl has an amazing voice” and “That kid knows his magic tricks,” I found myself thinking, “These kids are just like the ones who were shot to death in school one sunny morning a few months ago” and “What’s to stop a guy with a gun from walking three feet into this school, turning left and terrorizing a classroom full of kindergartners?” I even found myself looking at both school principals and thinking, “Are they prepared to sacrifice their lives to protect my kids?”

Is it wrong for me to think these thoughts?

Is it wrong for others not to?

I belong to a Facebook group entitled, “Occupy the NRA” that posted a compelling status update yesterday. It said in part:

As the Connecticut state flag still flies at half-mast to remember the slaughter of children and teachers, the NRA punishes Newtown parents with robocalls reminding them how special assault rifles are. Three miles from Sandy Hook, the second-largest gun lobbying firm, the National Shooting Sports Foundation, spends millions directly marketing assault rifles to children as young as 9.

If you want gun violence to end, these organizations must be confronted with a ferocity as if your child was in the crosshairs. It's been more than three months since Sandy Hook and we can't even get background checks. We are losing this battle on every front and it’s because we are not as engaged as the other side, not even close. I don't know what you want to hear or what will motivate you. This is just the truth.

How can any parent not be as engaged as the other side? According to a New York Times story entitled, “Months after Massacre, Obama Seeks to Regain Momentum on Gun Laws,” polls show that nine out of ten Americans support universal background checks, including seven out of ten NRA members. The article also says, however, that senators are threatening to filibuster gun control proposals scheduled to come up next month and that “a ban on certain styles of semiautomatic weapons is virtually assured of defeat.”

How is this possible? How can any one group have so much sway over public policy? The article also says the NRA is activating its base to ensure that “congressional offices and town hall meetings over the next week will be swamped with competing agendas on how to combat gun violence.” An NRA spokesman is quoted as explaining, “What we face right now is the most dire threat to the association and to our freedom.”

Oh, now I get it: the NRA is more important than American schoolchildren. When the NRA talks about “freedom,” they really mean, “The freedom of small-penised NRA members to buy and show off their big guns whenever and wherever they want,” not “the freedom of mothers and fathers to send their sons and daughters to school knowing that they won’t get their heads blown off before lunch.”

Click here to read, “Men With Loaded Rifles Intimidate Moms Gathered At Gun Safety Rally.” And click here to read “Rifle Used in Killings, America’s Most Popular, Highlights Regulation Debate.”

I’ll close this post by sharing a photo of a beautiful little girl, seven-year-old Grace McDonnell:

Grace was best friends with the daughter of a woman named Susan Ludwig, a mother of two Sandy Hook children who wrote a riveting open letter that ought to be required reading for all Americans. (Click here to read the whole story.) Susan Ludwig’s children lived; Grace did not.

It’s more than disappointing that any single lobbying group can thwart the will of the people and direct the movements of our lawmakers like puppeteers controlling marionettes. It’s nauseating. Repulsive. Criminal, in fact. How many more people have to die before protecting “Second Amendment rights” becomes less important than protecting kids like Grace? Isn’t she all the motivation we need?


Sources: New York Times, Thinkprogress.org, Occupy the NRA, msnbc.com.