Sandy Hook, 10 Years Later

When I woke up today, my first coherent thought was, “It’s the 10th anniversary of the Sandy Hook shooting.”

Then it dawned on me why a trivial 10-12 months concert anniversary broke via my blogger’s block yesterday. The idea of a 10th anniversary had been on my intellect since I attended the Nationwide Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in D.C. final Wednesday. The annual vigil is organized by a coalition of anti-gun-violence corporations, including the Newtown Action Alliance, a grassroots group launched by Newtown, Conn., citizens after the shooting at the town’s Sandy Hook Elementary College, wherever 20 children and six educators have been murdered. The vigil is normally on or close to December 14, the date of that tragedy.

I attended the D.C. vigil as a element of Gays In opposition to Guns (you do not have to be homosexual to sign up for!), a direct action team that puts tension on those who aid and permit the gun marketplace. I was just one of GAG’s “Human Beings” — men and women dressed in white, which include veils, each and every silently holding house for a individual person whose lifetime was lost to gun violence. GAG was established following the 2016 mass capturing at the Pulse, an LGBTQ+ club in Orlando, Fla., and the Human Beings have been the concept of founding member James “Tigger” Ferguson, who desired to make the lives misplaced tangible to the community in a way a record of names in a information report simply cannot. I can testify that it’s rather productive, regardless of whether Human Beings are processing by way of Periods Sq. (symbolizing the Buffalo, N.Y., supermarket capturing victims) keeping house in entrance of the landmark Stonewall Inn (representing the Club Q shooting victims) or standing in St. Mark’s Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill as we did very last Wednesday (symbolizing dozens of people today killed in homophobic/transphobic attacks).

When we’re in public, people today want to know what we’re about. The Human Beings really do not converse as extensive as we are in our purpose, but other GAG customers demonstrate why we are there, what we want (a ban on assault rifles, for occasion), and invite observers to stroll among the the Human Beings and read about the folks whose life had been lost, all unnecessarily.

Gun violence has only gotten even worse since Sandy Hook. In 2020, for the initially time, guns surpassed auto incidents, drug overdoses, and most cancers as the leading bring about of death for young children, aged 1 to 19 a long time aged. This May’s elementary college capturing set me around the edge. I’m talking about 1 at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas, in the course of which the effectively-funded and amply-skilled community law enforcement stood all around for additional than an hour as youngsters and instructors were being shot. The last straw for me was Fled Cruz (I refuse to use any other identify for that joke of a Texas senator) explained the reply to faculty shootings like Uvalde was not much less guns, but one particular-doorway school buildings.

I basically felt like I couldn’t stay a place where a Zodiac-Killer-hunting ignoramus like Fled could say a little something that fucking erroneous. Correct then, I started setting up an escape. MrB is retired and I can work from any place, so In September, we packed up Edward the canine and our two cats and went to Montreal. We loved it! I uncovered TWO pole-dancing studios in going for walks distance and commenced to encourage myself I could understand to appreciate the chilly. But, morally, I simply cannot but abandon the battle here, so we returned to New York in time for me to get out the vote for the November 8 midterms by knocking on voters’ doors in Pennsylvania.

Before we took our split from gun lifestyle, plenty of people, together with my Canadian good friends, pointed out some things I’m hyper-informed of: that violent fascism is on the uptick globally, and Canada has its have awful heritage and brutal present-working day racism. I really don’t believe for a 2nd there is anywhere immune from the evils perpetrated by humanity. But the U.S. is distinctive since no other wealthy region has permitted an epidemic of guns like we have …

… and no other rich region has close to the selection of gun homicides that the U.S. does.

Guns aren’t concerned in fatalities through murder and incidents. The Facilities for Condition Control and Prevention has claimed a surge in firearm suicides: In 2021, the 26,320 firearm-similar suicides actually outnumbered the 20,966 homicides caused by guns. (For 2022, the count will sadly include things like 40-yr-outdated Stephen “tWitch” Boss, the well-known dancer and “Ellen” show DJ, whose loss of life by a self-inflicted gunshot was declared currently.)

There was a tiny bit of fantastic news this calendar year. Each Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi spoke at the vigil in D.C. final week …

… and reminded us that in June, President Biden signed into regulation the to start with main gun protection laws handed by Congress in 28 years. Among the other points, a law proscribing gun possession by domestic abusers now covers men and women who are dating, not just married or previously married. However, the legislation did not reinstate the 1994 regulation banning assault-design and style weapons, so the AR-15s favored by domestic terrorists out to bring about optimum carnage keep on being unrestricted.

As a result, I attempt to put together for all alternatives. On the 1 hand, MrB and I are continuing our Québécois lessons by Zoom. On the other hand, I received a white wintertime jacket for my Human Currently being responsibilities. Sadly, I count on I’ll use the jacket prolonged just before I next have an prospect to purchase un café noir.

.