Michigan Rep. Elissa Slotkin expressed her frustration with addressing another school shooting more than a year after four students were shot dead at a Michigan high school.
“As a representative of Oxford, Michigan, I cannot believe that I am here again doing this 15 months later,” the Democratic lawmaker said at a news conference Tuesday. “And I am filled with rage that we have to have another press conference to talk about our children being killed in their schools.” The Michigan lawmaker went on to call out the lack of progress on gun violence.
“I would say that you either care about protecting kids or you don’t,” Slotkin said. “You either care about having an open honest conversation about what is going on in our society, or you don’t. But please don’t tell me you care about the safety of children if you are not willing to have a conversation about keeping them safe in a place that should be a sanctuary.” (check CNN for updates on this)
They happen all over the country but as bad as this seems, it is only February 14th and this is what has happened already.
So what do our politicians do? Worse than nothing. They ignore it. Refuse to take any responsibility for it. They say “now is not the time to make this political” as if that is supposed to solve a damn thing when they are playing politics with the lives of all of us. Yes, all of us.
“In a story first reported by the Washington Post, emails from a Tampa Convention Center employee said that the DeSantis campaign told the Florida Department of Law Enforcement it wanted weapons banned from the downtown Tampa event. The Tampa Bay Times verified those emails in which Chase Finch, safety and security manager at the convention center, also suggested the DeSantis campaign knew the request was politically tricky, given Republicans’ embrace of gun rights.” (Tampa Bay Times)
He wants to be protected from guns but doesn’t want to protect kids in school or any other law-abiding citizen that chooses to not be armed, or even the other responsible gun owners that do not want their lives endangered by those with no respect for the guns or the lives of others. Imagine that!
They keep saying the results of mass shootings are tied to mental illness as if anyone with a mental illness is dangerous, and yet, they see no reason to make sure those they say are dangerous do not have access to firearms. Sorry, but blaming people with mental illness is delusional. What makes it worse is that they do not want to limit anyone and now in too many states, they want no limits at all. Imagine that!
Well, at least they want to limit them when they are the ones in fear for their own lives. So what will it take for them to imagine their own children being killed, wounded, and scared for the rest of their lives because they did not think of them as much as they thought of themselves? I wonder what would happen if they could imagine that.