Sandy Hook, 10 Years Later
When I woke up right now, my initially coherent considered was, “It’s the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook taking pictures.”
Then I realized why a trivial 10-yr concert anniversary, of all points, broke by means of my thirty day period-very long blogger’s block yesterday. The strategy of a 10th anniversary experienced been on my brain considering the fact that I attended the Countrywide Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in D.C. very last Wednesday. The once-a-year vigil is arranged by a coalition of anti-gun-violence organizations, including the Newtown Motion Alliance, a grassroots team started by Newtown, Conn., residents just after the taking pictures at the town’s Sandy Hook Elementary College, wherever 20 little ones and six educators have been murdered. The vigil is normally on or near December 14, the day of that tragedy.
I attended the D.C. vigil as a section of Gays Against Guns (you never have to be gay to be a part of!), a direct action team that puts stress on those who assist and empower the gun industry. I was one of GAG’s “Human Beings” — men and women dressed in white, together with veils, each silently holding room for a certain unique whose life was missing to gun violence. GAG was launched just after the 2016 mass shooting at the Pulse, an LGBTQ+ club in Orlando, Fla., and the Human Beings had been the notion of founding member James “Tigger” Ferguson, who required to make the lives lost tangible to the general public in a way a list of names in a news report just cannot. I can testify that it’s pretty efficient, regardless of whether Human Beings are going for walks as a result of Moments Sq. (symbolizing the Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store capturing victims) holding house in front of the landmark Stonewall Inn (symbolizing the Club Q taking pictures victims) or standing in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill as we did previous Wednesday (symbolizing dozens of people killed in homophobic/transphobic assaults).
When we’re in community, men and women want to know what we’re about. The Human Beings really do not speak, but GAG customers and other activists clarify why we are there, what we want (a ban on assault rifles, for instance), and invite observers to stroll amid the Human Beings and go through about the folks whose life have been missing, all unnecessarily.
Gun violence has only gotten even worse because Sandy Hook. In 2020, for the to start with time, guns surpassed car incidents, drug overdoses, and cancer as the foremost lead to of dying for young children, aged 1 to 19 years previous. On a individual stage, this May’s elementary school taking pictures set me around the edge. I’m speaking about the 1 at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, through which the very well-funded and amply-experienced regional law enforcement stood all over for a lot more than an hour as children and instructors have been shot. Oddly, the very last straw for me was Fled Cruz (I refuse to use any other name for that joke of a Texas senator) reported the answer to university shootings like Uvalde was not less guns, but just one-door school structures.
I virtually felt like I couldn’t are living a region the place a Zodiac-Killer-wanting ignoramus like Fled could say a thing that ignorant. I started out scheduling an escape. MrB is retired and I can do the job from anywhere, so in September, we packed up Edward the puppy and our two cats and went to Montreal. We cherished it! I even discovered TWO pole-dancing studios in strolling length and commenced to influence myself I could discover to appreciate the chilly. But, morally, I could not however abandon the combat here, so we returned to New York in time for me to get out the vote for the November 8 midterms by knocking on voters’ doors in Pennsylvania.
Prior to we took our split from gun lifestyle, a lot of folks, which includes my Canadian pals, pointed out some factors I’m hyper-mindful of: that violent fascism is on the uptick globally, and Canada has its individual horrible heritage and brutal existing-day racism. I don’t assume for a second there is anywhere immune from the evils perpetrated by humanity. But the U.S. is particular in a awful way since no other wealthy state has permitted an epidemic of guns like we have …
… and no other rich place has close to the quantity of gun homicides that the U.S. does.
Also, the Facilities for Disorder Handle and Avoidance has noted a surge in firearm suicides: In 2021, the 26,320 firearm-linked suicides actually outnumbered the 20,966 homicides caused by guns. (For 2022, the count will regrettably include things like 40-12 months-outdated Stephen “tWitch” Boss, the well-liked dancer and “Ellen” demonstrate DJ, whose dying by a self-inflicted gunshot was declared now.)
There was a very small little bit of very good news this yr. Each Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi spoke at the vigil in D.C. very last 7 days …
… and reminded us that in June, President Biden signed into legislation the 1st significant gun security laws handed by Congress in 28 yrs. Among the other points, a law restricting gun ownership by domestic abusers now covers men and women who are courting, not just married or previously married. Sad to say, the laws didn’t reinstate the 1994 regulation banning assault-model weapons, so the AR-15s favored by domestic terrorists out to induce greatest carnage keep on being unrestricted.
I do believe that that a minimal progress is superior than a stalemate, but as usually, I’m planning for all possibilities. On the a single hand, MrB and I are continuing our Québécois classes by Zoom. On the other hand, I last but not least acquired a white winter season jacket for my Human Currently being responsibilities. Sometimes we keep exterior for an hour, standing stock nevertheless. It pains me to believe that I’ll don the jacket lengthy before I have an option to get un café noir. Which is The us for you.
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