Out of the equation

FIrearms are the leading cause of death of children and teens in the U.S. We can take them out of the equation, if we have the will.

Dear friends: As April ends, there is so much going on, it is often a challenge to decide where to focus.

This morning, I had planned to write about the attacks on our trans neighbors and family members. (And I will, soon, because this is one of the most important and ugly versions of white male supremacy happening now.)

Then I heard a statistic that firearms are now the leading cause of death for children and teens in this country.

(Find more information here, from the Kaiser Family Foundation: https://www.kff.org/global-health-policy/issue-brief/child-and-teen-firearm-mortality-in-the-u-s-and-peer-countries/)

How do we process that information? How do we make sense of it, put it in any kind of context, make it into anything other than a paralyzing horror?

One of the wealthiest, most “advanced” nations on our globe finds it acceptable that guns kill more of our children than anything else. This is a problem that is entirely within our control to solve - we do not need a massive investment in scientific exploration of a cure, as if it were a disease, or large-scale protections as if it were a natural disaster.

All we need is the will to take firearms out of the equation.

We - humans - make them, buy them, load them, and distribute them. We blanket our communities with them. We tell ourselves this is about “freedom,” about the constitution, about protection.

How can we insist that more firearms mean more safety in the face of this reality? Whose freedom do we care about? Not the freedom of our children to grow up and become the people who cure cancer and stop the climate catastrophe. Not the freedom of their grieving families and loved ones.

It is entirely within our power to stop this. If we do not, our lack of action tells us who we are.

If we do stop this, it tells us who we can become.

Be safe and well.