When “Thoughts and Prayers” are Not Enough

I don’t want to make this a political issue. I want to make it a human issue. I don’t want the government to come take all the guns and destroy them. I don’t know how they could possibly do that, anyway. There’s way too many of them. But there is one thing that is perfectly clear to me.

We have to do something.

The King Soopers shooter was born three days before the Columbine shooting. Twenty-one years ago. How many have there been since then? Yeah...I know. A lot less than car accidents and heart attacks and cancer and Covid. I get that. But, this is supposed to be a civilized society. 

After living in Colorado for forty years, and as a mother and grandmother and sister and friend of Colorado residents...my heart was in my throat when I heard “King Soopers Shooter” and “Colorado” in the same sentence. Where are my kids? My grandchildren? My friends? When they said the shooting was in Boulder, I had one second of relief. Then I was drawn back to the thought of all this unimaginable loss. My heart squeezed tight thinking of the shoppers that witnessed the shooting. The family members with the knock on the door.

The inevitable “I’m so sorry”.

Then I got angry. I felt like he’d messed with MY people...MY state...MY home. I wanted to scream.... 

“Stop it! Just STOP!!!”

We have to DO something.

But what? Sensible gun control? Register ammunition? Draw and quarter mass shooters in the village square? It appears from early statements there may be mental illness at play in this case...although, how can you say anyone who commits such an atrocity is sane? At the very least...make it more difficult to get a lethal weapon. Hell, I had to sign a contract with my doctor to have regular appointments to monitor my use of anxiety medication. But, I could go out tomorrow and buy an AR-15???

How long can we sit in our comfortable homes with our families around us and “send our thoughts and prayers” for these innocent victims and their families? It seems such empty rhetoric. The easy way out. 

The families of every victim of gun violence need so much more than our thoughts and prayers.

When is enough going to really BE enough?

Please....please...just make it STOP.

Sending thoughts and prayers then moving on the next week isn’t cutting it anymore.

WE HAVE TO DO SOMETHING...NOW!!!

? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

“Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”

Matthew 26:52 ESV