What we need is action to help prevent gun violence
Posted
By Linda Somo | Fountain Hills
In his Sept. 17 letter to your newspaper, Greg Dudash expressed outrage over the fact that certain broadcast journalists and elected officials dismissed “thoughts and prayers” as unacceptable for the horrific killings of the Catholic school children in Minneapolis. I think he is missing the entire point.
To my knowledge, no one is denying that the shooting was horrific, and that the victims and grieving families deserve everyone’s thoughts and prayers. The point he doesn’t seem to understand is that “thoughts and prayers” are not enough. We have endured far too many senseless mass shootings of our children and adults in this country. More so than all other countries in the world combined. Each time, we mourn and pray for the victims and their families. Yet nothing changes. We all hold our breath and wait for the next horrific event that we know will come.
Thoughts and prayers are not changing anything. They are not making anyone safer. They are not creating solutions or preventing any future mass shootings. They are not taking any guns off the streets. They are not preventing those with mental illness from owning or using a gun to harm others. They are not addressing any of the root causes that might encourage an individual to commit such a heinous act.
Instead of thoughts and prayers, what we really need is for our elected officials to take action. They need to actually address the problem instead of just ignoring it and moving on until the next incident when they can again pray for the victims.
Mr. Dudash totally missed the frustration, anger, resentment and grief behind the statements that he criticized. Those same feelings that many of us have because such horrendous incidents keep happening and nothing ever changes to prevent it. Prayers are not enough.
