“We’re kids.  You’re the adults.  You’re supposed to protect us.”

“We’re kids.  You’re the adults.  You’re supposed to protect us.”

~ Youth, Parkland, Florida

And so another.  This one, Parkland, after Columbine, after Newtown.  Weeping, gnashing of teeth and prayers.  Paul Ryan saying to CNN, we must stop and “count our blessings, not take sides.”  Stop in the face of slaughtered kids?  Here we are again.  Will this one be different?

Kids mowed down, parents’ and siblings’ lives changes forever.  Victims – those no longer with us.  Survivors – victims who will bleed every day of their lives.

These bloody images of kids’ bodies and parents in paroxysm of grief splayed across front pages, on TV screens.  This added to the one-a-day homicides we rarely see: a black kid in Baltimore’s Sandtown neighborhood, a Hispanic youth in LA’s Hollenbeck area, recorded, if at all, on page three of the Metro Section.  Again, if at all.

Our task is clear:  we must break through the numbness; break the hold of helplessness; act.  Our arguments are clear and morally powerful:

• Mutilated bodies of children.
• Devastating statistics – 345 homicides in Baltimore last year compared to 172 in the ENTIRE nation of Canada which has extremely strong gun laws
• Public Health: Unregulated guns, especially assault weapons are a toxin in the nation’s blood stream. Tainted spinach is removed from grocery shelves in an instant.  For flayed bodies of children we send in thoughts and prayers.  The CDC, keeping an eye on all germs, toxins, disasters that might befall our Nation has been prohibited by Congress from doing any research on the effects or prevention of gun violence.  
• Civic collapse: The fact that the local, state and federal government won’t protect us – not in schools, churches, universities, movies theaters, at concerts or in nightclubs. Thus, you’re on your own. Arm yourselves.  Don’t trust your neighbor.  Think twice about going out tonight for a neighborhood meeting.

 But let’s take a deep breath, and this one’s hard for all of us:  the moral, civic, human, public health framings have neither swayed our politicians nor stopped the killing. 

What will?

Engaging the issue of money and power.  The NRA funnels money to local, state level and national politicians.  The NRA has zero interest in safety, only money.  Were it interested in safety, the numbers would be different.  Fear sells. And the NRA is a most successful marketer of fear.  

So lawyers do what you’re good at doing.  Start suing.  Sue the maker of the AR 15; sue the home where the Parkland shooter stored his guns; sue the store where he got his guns; sue – sue the city which allows unregulated gun sellers to sell anything, sue the state of Florida which will not conduct background checks or take assault weapons off shelves, Florida that has, brazenly said to its citizens, “We will not protect you,”  because in Florida you:

• Don’t need a permit or a license to buy a gun
• Don’t have to register your gun
• Don’t need to restrict the number of guys you can buy.
• Don’t as a gun dealer need a state license to sell guns
• Don’t regulate assault weapons or large cap magazines.

Lawyers, have at it.  You guys pursue the law.

And now it’s our turn.  Repeat: each one of us, for as “MoveOn.org notes, “This tiny group of people are holding the rest of our lives hostage.” Raise our voices, move our feet, open our wallets to support lawyers who go after puny to non-existent gun laws, and candidates who support sensible guns laws, laws that have proven to cut gun deaths dramatically in states that have passed them. At a minimum we must demand that candidates support:

• Universal background checks (including private sales)
• The banning of assault weapons and large capacity magazines
• Supporting Extreme Risk Protection Orders, which allow family members of persons in crisis to ask a judge to temporarily remove a person’s guns (this would include domestic violence restraining orders)

It IS on us.  It’s corporations, it’s sports teams, it’s civic, faith and political leadership that say clearly, “We will no longer support you.”   We have allowed this toxic fungus to grow by electing people, such as Paul Ryan, who take money from the NRA.  Note that 91% of Americans want sensible laws to prevent gun violence and 74% of NRA members want the same. 80% of Americans want to see assault weapons taken out of the hands of civilians.

Former Representative David Jolly (R-FLA) said to CNN, “There are two things I would suggest, ‘Flip the House and flip the House.’” He added that “Republicans will never do anything on gun control.”  Steve Israel, Sheriff in Broward County (FL) said, “…if you wanna keep gun laws as they are now, you will not get re-elected in Broward County.”

 It’s a moral issue: the government’s fundamental obligation is to protect us, to free us from fear.  To deliver the moral will necessitate confronting the issues of money and power.

Protection; freedom from fear: Don’t we owe our kids that?  Owe all of us?

As one Parkland youth said, “We’re kids.  You’re the adults. You’re supposed to protect us.” Yes, we must mourn.  We must hold tight and pray for the families that have been shattered.  But then we must wipe away the tears.  And act – behaving, finally, like adults.