Now can we talk about gun control?

Photo courtesy of Malmo/Flickr

Denial
Anger
Bargaining
Depression
Acceptance

The five stages of grief

After
Columbine
Virginia Tech
Sandy Hook
Charleston
Orlando
Las Vegas

After all the others
(And there are many, many others.)

Round after round of denial.
This can’t happen here,
We say.
Again and Again and Again.

Round after round of anger.
This time. This time. THIS TIME.
ENOUGH.
We say.
Again and Again and Again.

Round after round of bargaining.
We don’t want all of your guns.
Just the ones that fire bullet after bullet after bullet in seconds.
We just don’t want them to get to the people
Who fire bullet after bullet after bullet
into innocent people
We just want some control.
We compromise.
Again and Again and Again.

Though we don’t really want to compromise.
We always want more.
But we’ll settle for anything.
Anything.

We sink into depression.
in round
after
round
of moments
of silence.
The seeping realization
That no amount of surgery
Can repair our shattered hearts.

What stage is next?

Acceptance?
We can’t accept this.

Can we?

We can’t accept that it’s acceptable
For men, women and children
to be gunned down
in classrooms, at concerts, on campuses
in movie theaters, in dance clubs, in churches.
That it’s OK for them to be collateral damage
for our right to bear arms.

We can’t accept that it’s acceptable
For kindergartners to have to do lockdown drills.
Cowering in the same corners
They play pretend
As their teachers tell them, “hush, hush.”
Pretending there’s an armed assailant nearby
Because of the times there was an actual armed assailant nearby.

We can’t accept that it’s acceptable
For there to be a rush on firearms and ammunition
the day after the slaughter
of one or tens or 20s or 30s or 40s or 50s.
That even though the common denominator
in all shootings is guns, we should battle for our right to own them.

We can’t accept that it’s acceptable
For 315 people to be shot each day by guns
For 93 people to die each day because of guns
For 46 children to to shot each day by guns
For seven children to die each day because of guns
For 114,994 people to be shot each year by guns
For 33,880 people to die each year because of guns
For 17,012 children to be shot each year by guns
For 2,647 children to die each year because of guns.

We can’t accept this.