A call to action as our country spills blood
his wife, “I love you, I’ve been shot at work,” just before he died. She’ll be raising their three children without him.
Two days before Aurora? That was the first anniversary of another Chicago police officer’s death.
Cmdr. Paul Bauer. His wife is my friend. His daughter is my daughter’s friend. He should still be here with them. Sometimes my breath catches in my throat when I think of them forever without him.
The day after Bauer died, a gunman walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and killed 17 people. Thursday was the first anniversary of their deaths. It was also the 11th anniversary of the day a gunman opened fire on Northern Illinois University’s campus, killing five people and then himself.
The day after those anniversaries was Aurora.
The week before Aurora, a 1-year-old baby, Dejon Irving, was shot in the head in Chicago’s Longwood Manor neighborhood.
More than 180 people have been shot in Chicago so far this year.
So this is life in America. A land of unparalleled ingenuity and staggering bravery and astounding natural beauty. And gun violence. Always, always gun violence.
I’m not ready to accept that. I don’t want a young person shot to death at work to remind me of another young person shot to death at work three months earlier.
A father of three’s shooting death to remind me of another father of three’s shooting death three months earlier. Students shot at school to remind me of other students shot at school — same day, different year.
No. We can do better. “It’s important to understand that gun violence is preventable, and that activism can make a difference,” Shannon Watts told me Monday.
Watts is the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, a group she launched in
2012, the day after a gunman shot 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School, mostly 6- and 7year-olds, before killing himself.
“Our volunteers have fought in hearing rooms, statehouses and boardrooms to change our nation’s culture of gun violence,” Watts said. “Don’t accept gun violence as a fact of life.”
Moms Demand has chapters in every state and is part of Everytown for Gun Safety, an organization that advocates for common-sense gun laws.
Moms Demand is not just for moms, Watts said. The group’s website, momsdemandaction.org, tells you how to join and take action.
“Just like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving),” she said, “we welcome all Americans concerned about this issue.”
March for Our Lives, the student movement that sprang from Parkland, also has a website: march forourlives.com. There’s a petition there to pass universal background checks. You can sign it.
Shaun Dakin, a Virginiabased gun-reform activist, maintains a site called 30 Gun Reform Actions You Can Take Now (30gun controlactionsyoucan takenow.com). Most of them don’t cost any money.
“Any action at this point, instead of just stagnancy and blaming the other side,” Parkland survivor David Hogg told TV cameras, one day after his classmates and teachers were slaughtered. “You guys are the adults. You need to take some action.”
I wonder what we’re waiting for. I really do. Join the Heidi Stevens Balancing Act Facebook group, where she hosts live chats every Wednesday at 1 p.m. Eastern.