All this week after the deadly shooting at the Chiefs rally, Kansas City was talking about what the root of the shooting was.
It’s the kids. These kids should be in a loving family.
These kids should be in school.
It should be harder to get access to firearms. What were these boys doing with guns in the first place?
It’s our weak police chief. It’s our weak mayor.
It’s because our governor has the loosest gun laws on the books in Missouri.
It’s gun culture. It’s because we need more Jesus. It’s because people don’t value human life.
It’s thugs and criminals and gangs.
If you said anything like this over the past week, guess what? You’re right. It’s a little of all of this. There is no solid reason behind why these two morons decided to shoot indiscriminately at kids and moms and Chiefs fans in the middle of this rally. The governor and the mayor didn’t pull the trigger. Some violent video game didn’t pull the trigger. The framer of the Second Amendment didn’t pull the trigger. Two idiots did.
But let’s pat ourselves on the back for sending our solution to everyone in the group text with our friends. HUZZAH! I have solved the problem! Now let’s go back to our bagels and bacon. You haven’t solved squat. You’ve pointed to a facet of a multifaceted problem and felt good about yourself doing it. But that hasn’t solved anything.
Nobody is doing anything to solve this. We’re all just arguing about what causes it. We should know by now that this has a dozen causes, and yet, we’re stuck in the cycle of finger pointing and blaming. We never get around to improving.
This isn’t something that will be resolved in a day or a year or maybe even in a generation. But I guarantee that it won’t get better if we do nothing about it. That is a simple fact.
Let’s improve the schools. Pay teachers a livable wage so they can help foster and mold these kids. Let’s make gun laws more restrictive – within reasonable boundaries. Go listen to Jason Kander talk about smart gun technology and removing the Seventh Amendment loophole for gun manufacturers. Let’s encourage more kindness. More family time. Vote out the politicians that take money from the NRA.
Let’s do something. Anything. But that won’t happen after Union Station. It didn’t happen after Columbine, or Sandy Hook or hundreds of other shootings. Gun violence is the leading cause of childhood death in this country and it doesn’t need a team of scientists to cure. But we won’t do anything after this because it’s just too easy to point at X or Y and sit back and applaud ourselves.
Oh. These kids were in a gang? Well there ya go. Let’s see if Wheel of Fortune is on.
You think the NRA is to blame for some of this? Nope. Not even remotely possible. The Second Amendment is water tight. Let’s see what’s on Fox News.
(You’re correct if you also think Chris Kamler is worth following on social media. Check him out on X, formerly Twitter, where you can find him as @TheFakeNed)
