It ought to be a shock to all of us, as a nation and as a people. It ought to obsess us. It ought to lead to some sort of transformation. That's what happened in other countries when they experienced similar tragedies. In the United Kingdom, in Australia, when just a single mass shooting occurred in those countries, they understood that there was nothing ordinary about this kind of carnage. They endured great heartbreak, but they also mobilized and they changed. And mass shootings became a great rarity. And yet, here in the United States, after the round the clock coverage on cable news, after the heartbreaking interviews with families, after all the speeches and all the punditry and all the commentary, nothing happens.
Sep 22, 2013
- Published in Ethics, Foreign Leaders, Foreign Policy, Justice, Policy, Political Responsibilities, Politics, Second Amendment & Gun Control, Violence
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No other advanced nation endures this kind of violence. None. Here in America, the murder rate is three times what it is in other developed nations. The murder rate with guns is ten times what it is in other developed nations. And there's nothing inevitable about it. It comes about because of decisions we make or fail to make. And it falls upon us to make it different.
Sep 22, 2013
We cannot stop every act of senseless violence. We cannot know every evil that lurks in troubled minds. But if we can prevent even one tragedy like this, save even one life, spare other families what these families are going through, certainly we've got an obligation to try.
Sep 22, 2013
We Americans are not an inherently more violent people than folks in other countries. We're not inherently more prone to mental health problems. The main difference that sets our nation apart, what makes us so susceptible to so many mass shootings, is that we don't do enough, we don't take the basic common sense actions to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerous people. What's different in America is that it's easy to get your hands on a gun.
Sep 22, 2013
I do not accept that we cannot find a common sense way to preserve our traditions, including our basic second amendment freedoms and the rights of law abiding gun owners, while at the same time reducing the gun violence that unleashes so much mayhem on a regular basis.
Sep 22, 2013
But the question is, do we care enough? Do we care enough to keep standing up for the country that we know is possible, even if it’s hard, and even if it’s politically uncomfortable? Do we care enough to sustain the passion and the pressure to make our communities safer and our country safer? Do we care enough to do everything we can to spare other families the pain that is felt here today?
Sep 22, 2013
- Published in Ambition & Fame, Civil Disobedience, Civility, Communication & Rhetoric, Community, Congress & Legislation, Democracy, Ethics, Freedom & Liberty, Human Nature, Human RIghts, Ideology, Justice, Leadership, Policy, Political Aspirations, Political Responsibilities, Politics, Public Opinion & Polls, Reality, Second Amendment & Gun Control, Violence
Our tears are not enough. Our words and our prayers are not enough. If we really want to honor these twelve men and women, if we really want to be a country where we can go to work and go to school and walk our streets free from senseless violence, without so many lives being stolen by a bullet from a gun, then we're gonna have to change. We're gonna have to change.
Sep 22, 2013
The fundamental danger of an acquittal is not more riots, it is more George Zimmermans.
Jul 13, 2013
- Published in Race & Ethnicity, Second Amendment & Gun Control, Violence
When a congresswoman can be shot in a parking lot and a professor who falls short of Glenn Beck's standards of political correctness can be, however anonymously, targeted for execution, we have moved well beyond democracy to a tyranny of the heavily armed.
Jan 26, 2011
- Published in Second Amendment & Gun Control