On Wednesday, the uniquely American sport of professional football intersected with the uniquely American problem of mass shootings.
President Joe Biden issued a statement late Wednesday regarding the incident that left one woman dead and more than 20 injured.
“The Super Bowl is the most unifying event in America,” he said. “Nothing brings more of us together. And the celebration of a Super Bowl win is a moment that brings a joy that can’t be matched to the winning team and their supporters. For this joy to be turned to tragedy today in Kansas City cuts deep in the American soul. Today’s events should move us, shock us, shame us into acting. What are we waiting for? What else do we need to see? How many more families need to be torn apart? It is time to act. That’s where I stand. And I ask the country to stand with me. To make your voice heard in Congress so we finally act to ban assault weapons, to limit high-capacity magazines, strengthen background checks, keep guns out of the hands of those who have no business owning them or handling them.”
The problem is that our elected leaders (who aren’t really leading on this issue, or many others currently) are not advancing the will of the people. Most Americans want something to be done. Between one party that won’t and another party that can’t, nothing is happening.
“We know what we have to do, we just need the courage to do it,” Biden said. “Today, on a day that marks six years since the Parkland shooting, we learned that three police officers were shot in the line of duty in Washington, DC and another school shooting took place at Benjamin Mays High School in Atlanta. Yesterday marked one year since the shooting at Michigan State University. We’ve now had more mass shootings in 2024 than there have been days in the year.
“The epidemic of gun violence is ripping apart families and communities every day. Some make the news. Much of it doesn’t. But all of it is unacceptable. We have to decide who we are as a country. For me, we’re a country where people should have the right to go to school, to go to church, to walk the street — and to attend a Super Bowl celebration — without fear of losing your life to gun violence.”
It has become our new national abnormal, this constant background fear that someone will show up with a gun and start shooting in every possible public place. If you leave your home, it’s one of the risks you necessarily assume.
The solution starts with us. All of us. Casting ballots not based on wedge issues that don’t affect our lives but on issues that potentially will affect us and those we know and love in a very permanent and horrific way.
It will take time. It will take effort. It will take patience. It starts with a collective decision that enough is enough and that we will no longer tolerate what we have become as a nation.
To all responsible gun owners, fear not. The government won’t be confiscating your guns. The Second Amendment will remain on the books. Those who have manipulated you into resisting any and all reasonable restrictions on the proliferation of weapons of mass murder need you to think that it’s part of a deep-state plan to take all guns away from all Americans, so that you’ll fight loudly against any effort to make things better.
To those who believe you need an arsenal of assault weapons in their homes to defend yourselves against inevitable governmental confrontation, none of that will matter until you also are able to procure tanks, fighter jets, and/or bazookas.
So let’s snap out of this protracted fever dream and fulfill our obligation to each other and to ourselves. After all, it becomes impossible to preserve our inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness if our lives become decimated by someone who shouldn’t have access to certain types of gun (or any of them) shows up where we are and starts pulling the trigger, again and again and again.