#NeverAgain

My heart is breaking and I can only imagine the pain of losing a child, a sibling, a parent, a best friend in such a senseless way. This latest mass murder in a place that should be safe for our children, yet all too often safe places have become killing fields. Tears, tears and more tears combined with enormous pride and hope as I watch these young people rise up and make their voices heard. They can be a force of change. They are smart, tech savvy, strong-willed, articulate and I believe they mean business. I am thankful for their passion. They are tired of the worthless pattern that emerges after each mass murder and they want it to stop! This is what is needed today in America to stop the senseless killing of innocent people.

And for all the Second Amendment people who value their guns more than human beings, I say get over it. No one wants your handgun, no one wants your hunting rifle. Keep them and I pray that your life is free of accidental shootings. I pray that your child doesn’t find that gun and accidentally discharge it and in that process end their own life. But no one needs an AR15. These aren’t hunting guns, they are killing machines.

One story I recently read was about an eight year old who returned home from school sobbing and told her mother that she needed new tennis shoes. Thinking that someone at school had bullied her about her shoes, she asked her child why she needed new tennis shoes. Her child said…”because Mommy, my tennis shoes light up when I move and if I am hiding they would see me.” What kind of world are we living in when an eight year old child is afraid of being shot in school? What kind of Americans are OK with this? When did a gun become more important than a child’s life? What planet is this?

This “killing problem” in America must end!  Other nations that have instituted gun controls have virtually eliminated mass killings. When elected officials…Republicans, Democrats or Independents…take money from the NRA or any other organization for political gain, then they are working for that entity and not for the people who elected them to office. We the people have the power of the vote. And these young people will soon be of age to vote, some of them in the November elections. My warning to politicians…beware the wrath of this new generation. They are focused, they are tired of being afraid, they are tired of the senseless killing, they are tired of adults not solving a ridiculous problem, they are energized and they will work tirelessly to oust you from office. #Never again. They are the change. Tick tock…