With Rage and Tears

I had another post semi-drafted for today, but I can't finish it and I can't publish it right now. It was celebratory and happy and purely grounded in my trivial life. But last night and today I am simply gutted by the mass murder in Uvalde. In reading the breaking news headline that there was a mass shooting at a Texas Elementary School when I have a child at a Texas Elementary School. I'm horrified, devastated, furious, but not even remotely surprised- and the lack of surprise just makes it all that much worse.

All our GOP politicians who run this state and are calling this event incomprehensible and unimaginable are flat out lying. It's absolutely imaginable- it's happened dozens of times before and every law they've passed since has simply made it easier to happen again. Our "pro-life" governor BRAGGED last year about passing pro-gun laws (22 of them!) so irresponsible that even police chiefs and certain gun groups were opposed to them. He bragged that he made it so that any eligible Texan could carry a gun in public with "no license or training needed." And then, not remotely unimaginably, an 18-year-old Texan bought an assault rifle after his 18th birthday and then killed a classroom full of children and two teachers in minutes. Because he had an assault rifle and we're the only place that makes this not only possible, but easy, and we have politicians who are PROUD of how very easy it is.

This doesn't happen anywhere else, and yet my Texas leaders will pretend there is simply nothing they can do. They'll immediately pretend that calls to action are "politicizing" as opposed to the exact logical response to repeated preventable tragedy. They will pretend that it is a problem that can't be perfectly solved and therefore we shouldn't even try. They will pretend that every other country where this DOES NOT HAPPEN is irrlevant rather than an example to study and emulate. Even here, seatbelts vastly reduce automobile death. Car registration and licensing reduce unsafe drivers. We regulate ALL SORTS OF THINGS. The Second Amendment contains the words "well regulated" in it. But somehow no, for guns there are absolutely no logical laws or regulations allowed. Not in Texas, the land of the fake pro-life lobby who pretends fetuses are sacred but actual living children are simply the price we pay for everyone being able to buy an assault rifle if and when they want one. Tiny body bags of dead school children are simply the sunk cost of protecting gun ownership.

It is devastating and infuriating and I've spent the day vaccilating between every strong feeling I have, while answering everyday emails about securities law matters and attending Cora's 2nd grade graduation.

Watching this smiling face walk across the stage and imagining those parents who will not watch their child graduate their grade, graduate any grade, or hug and hold them tight every day was simply gutting. I am so angry. I am so sad. I have donated to Everytown and I vote for pro-gun-regulation officials in every Texas election I'm eligible for, but when tiny body bags just don't matter, it's hard to feel like any of it helps.