America 2023.
More guns than people in our country, about 340 million at last estimates.
We wait anxiously for the next mass shooting we know is coming.
One side of the political aisle offers thoughts and prayers.
The other offers utopian solutions with no chance of passing legislative muster.
A seemingly endless cycle in a country now disturbingly numb to the bloodshed.
Consider: What if we saw the aftermath of this carnage in living color? Would anything change?
Have you seen pictures of dead Union and Confederate soldiers in the Civil War? Emmett Till in his open casket in 1955? Followers of Jim Jones in Guyana after the mass suicide in 1978?
You probably said yes to those questions. And, I’m certain seeing those images changed your viewpoint on those events and impacted policy.
Well, then, have you seen images of the victims of the Columbine shooting in 1999? Sandy Hook in 2012? Pulse nightclub in 2016 in Orlando? Las Vegas in 2017 or Parkland in 2018? Uvalde, Texas in 2022?
You said no because the crime scene pictures have never been released to the public. However, what if we had seen them? What if all of us–regular citizens, policy makers, religious leaders, law enforcement and gun manufacturers– had seen them? Would policies change?
We cannot continue to pretend that guns kill people cleanly, swiftly and without physical carnage as they often seem to do in the movies or on TV if we want policy to change. We cannot digest the sanitized media coverage of these events if we want policy to change.
Yes, this idea is disturbing. Yes, it’s horrific to even ponder this. However, in a country that has seemingly become OK with children being slaughtered so I have the right to own a military-grade assault weapon, it might be the only thing left to slow this blood-soaked race to the bottom.
I’m Wester Wuori and that’s my Perspective.