45...no, 46

This morning I read a headline that said there have been 45 mass shootings since the beginning of 2021.

We did not even get to the end of today before it was 46.

But this isn’t the time to talk about gun laws.

Because it’s NEVER the time.

Y’all. I accept that I live in the US and people will always have guns.

What I cannot accept is that 46 mass shootings in less than 4 months is normal.

I REFUSE.

I refuse to accept that the white evangelical church continues to spend its energy on whether women should preach or two grown men should able to commit their lives to one another yet is deafeningly silent on gun violence (and racism but that is a whole other post).

Do I sound angry? Because I’m furious.

I am exhausted every time I see the news and yet I cannot look away because that is complicity in this @%^&%* mess we call the land of the free.

I do not feel free.

Wondering whether gun violence will touch my family through a supermarket or school or concert or workplace or driving down the highway is not freedom.

We do not have to live like this. We don’t.

As I said before, I’ve accepted that living in America means people will always have guns, but we need to have actual conversations about ways to prevent this from happening.

Universal background checks.

Closing gun show loopholes.

Community engagement.

Recurring gun safety license and courses.

Pastors addressing from the pulpit the rage and racism that has led to several of the shootings this year.

The 1st graders who were murdered at Sandy Hook would’ve been Freshmen in high school this year and we’ve done nothing but let this keep happening.

How much longer will we fail to love one another?