This Just In – BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

That’s 70 rounds in the blink of an eye. That is what exploded through the unsuspecting humans at Highland Park’s Independence Day parade on Monday. 70 rounds. Children, parents and grandparents – one of whom was in a wheelchair.

It’s impossible to overstate the lack of humanity involved in sniping defenseless people who are gathered for an innocent purpose. That said, I leave the shooter’s state of mind for another day.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

I’ve changed my mind about something because the facts of America’s addiction to gun violence have given me little choice.

In August 1955, 14 year-old Emmett Till of Chicago, Illinois was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi. His body was found in the Tallahatchie River. His face was gruesomely mutilated.

Mamie Till, Emmett’s grief-stricken mother made a decision that launched the civil rights movement. She displayed his body at his funeral and his casket had a glass top ensuring he would never be hidden. She wanted the world to see what was done to her beautiful, innocent son. She knew intuitively that hearing about something unbearably awful is one thing. Seeing it is another.

In the late 1960s, the Vietnam war was escalating and so was the divide among Americans, across generations about our country’s involvement in it. Nixon was lying about “progress” in the war and the numbers of lost American sons was going up and up, with no end in sight.

When images of the war became routine on the evening news along with film of caskets returning home, public opinion shifted. The slaughter of civilians in Vietnam at the hands of American soldiers could not be covered up. Not even by Nixon.

There were many elements that contributed to the end of that immoral war, but the inescapable fact is the same as with Emmett Till. Hearing about an awful thing and seeing it are not equal. Ten thousand words cannot illustrate the brutality of an elementary school child’s body so damaged by high powered ammunition that DNA testing is needed to identify the remains as was the case in Uvalde, Texas.

No. It’s time. We need to see the pictures of these shooting victims.

At the very least our power-loving, gun-funded Senators and Roberts Court (no longer “Supreme”) members need to have these pictures placed before them to require that they ban the civilian possession of assault rifles, which have no legitimate use for people not in the military and are PLAINLY a national security threat.

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

There have been more than 300 mass shootings this year. There will be another between the time I write this and the time it’s published. The drumbeat of this constant interruption of civilian life is building up to a violent cacophony. We cannot “get used” to this and we are NOT helpless.

Demand an assault rifle ban. DEMAND universal background checks. The country is NOT divided about this. Call these guys – again.

Senator Thom Tillis
113 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Phone: (202) 224-6342

Senator Richard Burr
217 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
P: (202) 224-3154

 

jean bolducJean Bolduc is a freelance writer and the host of the Weekend Watercooler on 97.9 The Hill. She is the author of “African Americans of Durham & Orange Counties: An Oral History” (History Press, 2016) and has served on Orange County’s Human Relations Commission, The Alliance of AIDS Services-Carolina, the Orange County Housing Authority Board of Commissioners, and the Orange County Schools’ Equity Task Force. She was a featured columnist and reporter for the Chapel Hill Herald and the News & Observer.

Readers can reach Jean via email – jean@penandinc.com and via Twitter @JeanBolduc

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