This is the Country…
Growing up in Australia — in the western world, for that matter — we were taught to look up to America. This is the country that produces the best film, TV, and music. This is the country that produces the best tech and software, like the iPhones in our pockets or the social media we flaunt our lives upon. This is the country that builds the greatest brands and institutions, captivating the world over. This is the country that leads the world in the fight against dictators and fascists, with the president a shining leader in this struggle. This is the country that leads humanitarian efforts in times of crisis, and is always there to lend a hand to its friends in need.
To an extent, all of this is true, but there is a lot that we tend to forget about this so-called beacon of democracy.
This is a country that still cannot provide healthcare to its citizens. This is a country that cannot protect a woman’s right to choose what to do with her pregnancy. This is a country that doesn’t provide parental leave. This is a country that had to have a civil war in order to decide that slavery was an immoral practice. This is a country that took a further century to decide that the descendants of those slaves should have equal rights enshrined in federal law. This is a country whose police force chooses to shoot first, ask questions later, and get away with it. This is a country that still cannot wholeheartedly agree who won the last election (you know who you are. Accept the result.). This is the country that blindly led its allies into quagmires that they called wars. And, perhaps most ashamedly, this is a country that cannot seem to protect that which needs the most protecting: children.
America and mass shootings, a regularly occurring event. America and mass school shootings, another regularly occurring event. Truth be told, that country and the world are numb to the fact, but we shouldn’t be. Violence should never lead to numbness. Violence should never be as common as the sunrise and sunset. Violence should always leave us feeling ill and horrified.
In this year alone there have been 210 mass shootings in America. At the time of writing, it’s only May 25th 2022. That’s substantially more than one per day. In our recent memory, there have been countless that stand out by the sheer mention of the locations and names of the most infamous of mass shootings. Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, Charleston, Orlando, Las Vegas, Parkland, Buffalo, and most recently, Uvalde. That doesn’t even scratch the surface of what occurs in this country, with the number of mass shootings and other gun-related deaths dwarfing its peers in the developed world.
All shootings are terrible, it’s not a competition, however it’s the school shootings that stand out as by far the most gut-wrenching. Parents entrust their children’s schools with their safety every day. School is meant to be a safe place, where students can learn and teachers can teach, where friends are made and good times are shared. School is not supposed to be a place associated with a mass shooting event, yet it is in America. This most recent shooting in Uvalde, Texas, sends a sting in the gut, for the sheer amount of children under the age of 10 that had been shot to death in cold blood by the hands of a deranged and disturbed man. Little children who will never have the chance to get a job, learn to drive a car, graduate, find love and marry, make something of themselves, and peacefully grow old after experiencing a lifetime, leaving behind mothers and fathers who will now never have another chance to kiss their little ones and tell them how much they love them. What’s heartbreaking is that this isn’t the first time these sentiments have been echoed, as detailed above, and knowing the history of this country, it will not be the last.
School is meant to be a place where children can grow and develop. It is not meant to be a shooting gallery for deranged young men. A supermarket is meant to be a place where people can provide for themselves and their families, not a place where a domestic terrorist can enact his worst fantasies. A nightclub is supposed to be a place where people can dance and escape from their daily lives, not a place where they need to duck for cover at the mercy of an extremist.
And yet, what will be done to save lives? Absolutely nothing. The Republican senators and congresspeople time and time again are beholden to the NRA and gun lobbies, whom wave the 2nd Amendment as though it is relevant in this day and age, nearly 250 years after it was written, in a vastly different context. Those Republican politicians would rather see their pockets lined up and their political lives secured, than to see meaningful legislations passed in order to protect and to save lives. Thoughts and prayers are offered aplenty, but any form of gun control passing the senate? A pipe dream. They speak of the ‘Will of the People’, yet, the majority of the people want some form of gun control introduced, but the gun lobbies and the senators they have by the vice grip will allow no such thing.
It is telling when an 18 year old man cannot buy a beer, but he can buy an automatic rifle. It is telling when the same man will go through more rigours in purchasing a car, than he would when buying a gun. It is even more telling when a small, but vocal, minority of people continue to hold support for the status quo, under the false guise of ‘freedom’. To be free is not to simply be able to willingly purchase a gun, to be free is to live your life knowing you will not be mowed down by one.
For those who doubt my rhetoric, my country of Australia and our neighbour New Zealand each enacted sweeping reforms following mass shootings, and have had none since. Then again, our countries are those that protect citizens in more ways than one, let alone from psychotic individuals with a desire to inflict maximum carnage.
Often the question is asked of these politicians, “when will we act?” or, “how many is too many?” and other questions of such ilk. Well, it seems that the answer to the first question is “never” and to the second is “as many as we like.” Playing lives with politics, it always seems. Then again, these are the same politicians who played politics during a pandemic, during a terror threat, and during wars. Pawning lives in a political game of chess is a daily routine.
Painfully, this is the country where, among other horrors, a mass shooting is to be routinely expected.
