I’m not sure anything can be added to the vast commentary and collective horror we’re all experiencing and sharing as a result of the gut-wrenching tragedy that occurred in Connecticut today. But I’m going to add something anyway. Because frankly, this conversation can’t be big enough. Every time something like this happens, our media and officials cover for the wrong-headed pro-gun lobby. And some of them are doing it still. But that’s over now. It has to be.

We cannot apologize for our gun laws anymore. Why now? Why is this different? In most salient ways it’s not any different than so many of the other tragic shootings that we’ve endured in our country in the last decade. But this is different.

How? Why?

Some sick man shot his mother and brother, and then went to a school and mowed down a classroom full of kindergarteners – among our most precious and vulnerable – with a near-military grade automatic assault weapon. This happened. And things like this will continue to happen until we restrict access to guns in our county.

My god. Why are we putting our 5-year-olds in the position to have to be this brave?

The Second Amendment is an antiquated relic that had no notion of AK-47s and automatic handguns or the way our society is currently built and maintained.

Take the guns away. Now.

But that’s not all.

We have to get the mentally ill the help and security that they need. We have to de-stigmatize mental illness.

People are going to say that gun laws are complex and political, and evaluating the mentally ill is is difficult and unreliable. Bullshit. Guns may not inherently kill people, but they continue to enable the unstable and evil among us to perpetrate massacres. An assault rifle has no purpose other than to massacre. And the mentally ill need to be recast as victims rather than ignored or thrown under the bus.

Look… I don’t have all the answers. None us of could. But, I will say this: if these changes are not things that you want out of your society, then fuck you: you can go join another one.

If we can’t protect the newest of our school-going children from massacre, then just what the fuck are our laws and our moral priorities doing for us?

If we can’t identify and help the people who are most likely to perpetrate these atrocities, then we need to rethink our approach.

I know we can’t stop all atrocities like this – that would be impossible. But can try. We have to try.
And another round of status quo is not going to get it.

It’s over. Give up the guns.