The nation reeled in horror and anguish when it learned of the news of a heavily armed gunman who entered an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut and opened fire. Within moments, the 20-year-old gunman killed 26 people, including 20 small children, aged 5-10. Also killed in the gunfire was the killer’s own mother and the school principal. The gunman ended the massacre by committing suicide.
This shocking tragedy comes less than two weeks before Christmas and just days after another gunman went on a shooting rampage at a shopping mall in Portland, Oregon, killing two people and wounding another. And it wasn’t long ago when another single gunman, armed with military-grade weapons burst into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado and killed 12 people and wounding 70 others, and a self-described white supremacist killed six people at a Sikh Temple in Milwaukee.
In an emotional press conference, President Obama addressed the nation, while shedding away tears after the latest of a long line of mass killings. During the course of a near-four minute speech, he had this to say:
“The majority of those who died today were children -- beautiful little kids between the ages of 5 and 10 years old. They had their entire lives ahead of them -- birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own. Among the fallen were also teachers -- men and women who devoted their lives to helping our children fulfill their dreams.”
Throughout his statement, it was clearly evident that the President was, at times, struggling to maintain his composure and was clearly saddened. He went on to say that the country has been through this too many times and that “meaningful action” would be needed “to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of politics.”
While political pundits are quick to say “today is not the day to talk about gun control”, social media is in a full on melt down on both sides of the issue. The criticism of the powerful gun lobbyist, the NRA may have been so profound today, that its Facebook page was taken down, just as it did in the wake of the Aurora atrocity. Not surprisingly, there was no mention of the massacre of school children on the NRA website and, perhaps thankfully, some hyper-gun rights advocates like Ted Nugent had nothing yet to say on Twitter or Facebook. The NRA also canceled a Tweet & Greet Country music event today but did not make any reference to the latest tragedy involving guns.
Opposing views continue to lash out at each other at breakneck speed on social media. On Twitter, the hashtag #NRA is getting plenty of traction with celebrities such as Oliver Stone writing: “@NRA you should blush with shame today. The souls of those 20 children have felt your fire” and Michael Moore writing “the NRA hates freedom. They don’t want you to have the freedom to send your children to school & expect them to come home alive”. Still, there are plenty of people who will defend gun rights and perhaps blame the tragic shooting in Newtown in a different manner, such as with former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee's comments that blamed the Newtown school shooting on removing God from schools.
It’s clear that many Americans are simply fed up with the multitude of mass killings and this time, the anti-gun movement drum beat is much louder and might not go away this time. Gun rights activists will cite the 2nd Amendment, the need to protect their families and “guns don’t kill, people do”, which are all legitimate arguments. It’s true that people are the ones behind a firearm and some of these killers may have mental issues. But how many more scenes like today must Americans suffer through without taking any action?
There may not be an immediate solution to the epidemic of gun violence, easy acquisition of firearms and improving background checks, but with the latest unspeakable tragedy, it involved 20 young children, days before they were to anxiously await the arrival of Santa to bear gifts and spread peace and joy across the planet.
This time, as one Newtown resident said today, “they lost their joy before Christmas, how do you live with that?” The answer is unclear but every American must come to grips with what happened today and ponder if it's OK for parents to live with knowing that their children might have to hide in a schoolhouse closet to escape a killer’s wrath.
