A few weeks ago, I spent time in Los Angeles attending the annual conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. While I was flying into LAX, news broke on the plane’s news stations about the shooting in San Bernardino. The mostly quiet plane ride then turned into a discussion I wish this nation would have about the senseless gun violence, which occurs in this nation.
Our nation has become increasingly violent and people everywhere are taking arms. This false sense of security has also increased the idiotic notion that if everyone in the room had guns there would not have been many deaths. Since the nation’s mindset has changed, so have the tactics we teach our children to protect themselves. When I was in elementary school, we had fire and hurricane drills. Now in many schools across the nation, students are learning how to protect themselves from gunmen.
The most unfortunate part of the cycle of a mass shooting is the unending debate on gun control. I have come to the mindset that we will not be able to have a sensible national conversation on gun control until the more moderate members of my generation are in leadership roles. While I understand our nation will never be 100% gun free, I do believe we could create sensible gun policies, such as banning high-powered assault rifles, taxing the sale of bullets and guns, and requiring annual certifications will help to stem the tide of our current trend. But each of these policies cannot be created without someone in the Republican Party willing to stand up against the far right ideology, which is poisoning their party.
I have come to the realization that this problem will not be solved by anyone in current political office. While the talking heads will continue to try to come up with some solution, they will only add a bandage to the problem. It is rare I ask people to stop trying, but I ask all elected officials to stop trying to make things better because you are only making them worse. The current political environment is far too toxic for any sensible legislation to pass, including the policies needed to actually create a better sense of security.
Common sense no longer resides with many of the current generation of leaders. The ball has already been dropped on anytime of gun policy legislation, thus it is only appropriate for a new set of players try to finish the game. More innocent lives will be lost and it sad because we cannot do anything about it at this time. The small glimmer of hope is only in passing the buck to the next generation, which in its safe is sad glimpse of how volatile our nation has become. #ijs