December 19, 2012 by David K. Sutton
Gun Violence: There Is A “Newtown” Every Day In America, And We Ignore It
It seems we Americans only take notice to gun violence when a sufficient number of fellow Americans are gunned down in one place. And if that location is not the inner-city, then we pay even closer attention. And if the victims are children, well, that’s what it takes to even start a conversation in this country. That’s what it takes to start talking about proposing new gun safety legislation.
But every single day in this country we have a Newtown. Over 30 Americans die every day from gun violence. But because each of these daily gun murders occur in different locations, and mostly in big cities, and many times the victims are minorities, there is no conversation. No calls for “meaningful action.” There is a gunshot, and then there is silence.
And this fact is made all the more clear when people say “this isn’t supposed to happen here,” as if to say, there is someplace where gun violence is acceptable. Our inaction on the issue of gun violence speaks volumes. Our collective silence says there are places in this country where gun violence is acceptable, and there are certain types of people who can die — and we are fine with that.
Because if we are not fine with that, then why have we done nothing to stop it? Why have we allowed a fringe group known as the National Rifle Association (NRA) to control our gun conversation? Why do we accept arguments of “sport” and “fun” used to defend the legality of weapons that make it easy for one person to commit mass homicide?
We need to decide if we are going to go down this road, a road we’ve been down many times before — Or are we finally going to take a stand and tell the assault rifle advocates that we will no longer accept their premise. — We will no longer allow them to hide behind their anecdotal defenses. — They will no longer speak for the entire country. — Because we will tell them enough is enough, and that this time we will not back down. This time we will get the last word on building a safer America for all Americans.
