Ask yourself seriously:

Is it reasonable for your kid or anyone’s kid to be shot and killed?

Is it reasonable for innocent people go to concerts, movies, their workplace or anywhere and risk being killed?

Is it reasonable for thousands of Americans to die each year, not from terrorism, but from gun violence?

Is it reasonable?

If you answered no to all of the questions above you can’t be satisfied with the state quo because this is what the status quo has produced year after year destroying lives forever.

Yet nothing ever changes. Ever.

America seems stuck in a cycle of insanity. You all have seen this script:

American mass shooting script:
24 hours of expressing shock & piety.
24 hours of discussing the disturbed perpetrator.
24 hours of “now is not the time to talk about gun laws”.
24 hours of highlighting the innocent lives lost.
Then: Do nothing & expect different results.

— Sven Henrich (@NorthmanTrader) November 5, 2017

I don’t claim to have an easy solution, because there is no easy solution, but I suspect a working solution requires a multi-dimensional approach that would take a monumental effort by society at large to solve. It includes changes to gun laws, mental health care, education, and a huge dose of common sense and a steely determination to actually want to solve this problem.

Are we still capable of this?

I’m not sure. In our age of political tribalism even the acknowledgement of the problem appears to be too hard a task. And as long as other people’s kids get shot and are simply a temporary flash in the constant flow of immediately forgotten news general apathy and hopelessness has taken hold.

So I ask again:

Is it reasonable for your kid or anyone’s kid to be shot and killed?

In case it isn’t obvious: The answer is a resounding HELL NO!

Presidents come and go and in standard script they always say the same thing: America is the greatest country on earth. Then let’s act like it and not let innocent kids keep getting shot and killed.

Offering thoughts and prayers have not helped.

Acknowledging the problem and working on a solution may help. Making it a bipartisan priority may help. But it won’t happen overnight. It will be hard and difficult and it will require America to decide that solutions are more important than political tribalism.

But it will be worth it.

After all, maybe one day a solution could help save you or your child.

And what’s more important than that?