America, let’s stop lying to each other. You don’t value life the way you claim to. If you did, we wouldn’t be here again, counting the bodies, watching families collapse under grief, and pretending thoughts and prayers are enough. You love your guns more than your children. That’s the truth.
On September 10, while we were supposed to be preparing to honor the victims of 9/11, two more acts of senseless violence ripped through the country. In Colorado, a student shot two of his classmates before killing himself. In Utah, conservative firebrand Charlie Kirk was shot in the neck while speaking at a university. Two different places, two different shooters, one common denominator: guns.
And what did we do? We watched the same tired cycle unfold. Shock. Outrage. A brief flood of sympathy, even crossing political lines. Then, almost immediately, the weaponization of tragedy. MAGA voices rushed to turn Kirk’s shooting into a cudgel against their enemies, even as their movement has spent years mocking compassion as weakness. The hypocrisy is nauseating.
Yes, I feel for Kirk’s family. No one deserves to lose a son, a husband, a father this way. But don’t expect me to forget who he was or what he stood for. Kirk made a career out of demeaning people like me, especially LGBTQIA+ people, treating us like targets in his culture war. My compassion extends to his family, but it doesn’t erase the harm he spent his life fueling.
Meanwhile, two Colorado teenagers lie in hospital beds, their futures stolen by trauma. Their story, like so many others, will fade into the background noise of America’s endless gun crisis. Because let’s face it: this country has decided it would rather normalize violence than confront it.
Just look at Tennessee. Since 2000, lawmakers have stripped away gun restrictions piece by piece: permitless carry, guns in bars, tax holidays for gun safes, even a “Second Amendment Sanctuary Act.” This isn’t safety. It’s surrender. It’s lawmakers declaring that your right to own a gun outweighs everyone else’s right to live.
Nationally, we haven’t done much better. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act of 2022, the first significant federal gun law in decades, was a baby step, not a breakthrough. It strengthened background checks and promised more resources for mental health and schools. Fine. But it didn’t even scratch the surface. Universal background checks? Blocked. Assault weapons ban? Dead on arrival. All because Republicans in Congress, backed by the gun lobby, refuse to put lives above lobbyist dollars and political theater.
Here’s the bottom line: America has the solutions. Other nations have faced mass shootings, tightened laws, and drastically reduced gun deaths. We won’t because we’d rather worship the Second Amendment than save lives.
So let’s be honest, America. Every mass shooting, every broken family, every child who grows up terrified in their own school is blood on our collective hands. The price of our cowardice.
If we want a different future, it starts with admitting the truth: guns are the problem. Not video games. Not mental illness. Not “godlessness.” Guns. Until we’re ready to face that, the funerals will keep piling up.
America, you are not better than this. Not yet. But you could be, if you finally chose lives over weapons.
