Reasons Why Our State Can’t Hold a Vigil...
...for our recently massacred citizens
-We can’t because in Massachusetts, we have some of the strictest gun laws and the second lowest number of gun deaths in the country.
-We can’t because instead of our politicians telling us “now is not the time for dealing with this very complicated issue” they said “It’s pretty fu*%$#’ simple. We will enact laws that make it at least as difficult to obtain a gun as it is to buy more than one box of Sudafed."
-We can’t, even though it would feel nice to hold a candle or speak to a reporter about our community coming together to offer thoughts and prayers for the victims. Because instead of thoughts and prayers, we legislated extensive background checks and licensing requirements. We required training in gun safety. Waiting periods. Interviews. Banned large capacity magazines. After Sandy Hook, we expanded our already strict laws. After Las Vegas, we banned bump stocks and trigger cranks. After Parkland we initiated our own ‘red flag’ statute. The sort of stuff you do to reasonably solve a very obvious problem.
-We can’t because our gun ownership rate is among the lowest in the country. Where there are more guns, there are more gun deaths (and not just from homicide - 60% of US gun deaths are from suicide) and we’ve managed to make it such a ‘process’ to get a gun that most of the angry white males jonesing to shoot up their workplace or school or shopping mall or movie theater or church or mosque or synagogue or Walmart or nail parlor or grocery store or nightclub (holy sh*t the list keeps growing) simply give up and return to playing Call of Duty in the basement.
-We can’t because we banned assault weapons in 1998. Made it permanent in 2004 when the Federal ban expired. Because no citizen, anywhere, needs an assault weapon.
-We can’t because we have living proof that sensible gun control works. And by living proof we mean all the people that are still living because of these laws. Did we mention we have the second lowest number of gun deaths in the country? That’s after Hawaii. Which makes sense, because, I mean, it’s Hawaii.
by Christine Stevens