I hope that many have heard Matthew  McConaughey’s speech on Tuesday at the White House. His powerful words brought the attention of the nation once again to the heinous toll that gun violence takes in our society. 

When grieving parents must use their child’s shoes or a DNA sample to identify them because the damage done by an AR-15 renders them unidentifiable in any other way, someone must be willing to say, “Enough!” 

Responsible gun owners do not oppose common-sense gun laws. While I fail to see why any private citizen needs to own an assault rifle, if gun manufacturers continue to make and market them, at the bare minimum, we must agree on raising the age to purchase these guns, as well as a waiting period before they can be purchased. We must also institute Red Flag laws whereby friends and family of prospective gun owners can alert authorities to possible danger. 

As McConaughey wrote in the Austin American Statesman, “There is a difference between control and responsibility. The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.” 

As many have noted, we all take off our shoes at airports now because one lunatic terrorist tried to blow up an airplane with his sneakers. We were all-in on stopping terrorism from abroad. However, when it comes to homegrown terrorists, suddenly there is nothing that can be done beyond offering thoughts, prayers, and political hand-wringing. 

The young man who killed innocent people in Buffalo believed in the Great Replacement conspiracy theory, which claims that people of color are being brought into our country for political reasons. He also wrote that low birth rates among white people equal white genocide. Obviously unhinged, he set out with his assault rifle to achieve his deadly agenda. 

Are we better than this?  There have been 27 school shootings so far in 2022. There have been 251 mass shootings in the US so far in 2022.  

This nearly unfettered access to assault weapons and to guns in general can be laid at the feet of the gun manufacturers and their political servants. We are now a country with more guns than people, a chilling fact. 

If responsible gun owners cannot find common cause with their fellow countrymen and act to keep guns away from dangerous people, we can expect that deaths from guns will continue to be the leading cause of death for children in America, a fact that should shame us. I fear, however, that shame is an obsolete concept these days.