Mabon Elk Rut Moon
I got a disturbing call in the early 1980’s. Could I do a funeral for a young woman whose marriage I had performed on the West Bank in Minneapolis not two years before? Of course. How did she die?
Two boys playing in an alley had a rifle. It went off. The .22 bullet was so spent by the time it reached where she stood on the balcony of her apartment that it couldn’t penetrate the back of her coveralls. But it had enough power to stop her heart.
At the funeral we decided that the only way to make sense of her death was to push for gun control. And we did. We lobbied the Minneapolis city council, talked to Minnesota legislators. I don’t remember how long we kept at it, but in the end we failed. Just like gun control advocates all across this country.
I think it’s time three things happened: 1. The NRA gets put on the terrorist watch list as an enabler of domestic terrorism. 2. The second amendment gets recognized as the gun control amendment that it is. 3. Gunmakers, gun controlled lawmakers, local gun use advocates get the shame and the blame each time a shooting occurs, mass or otherwise.
Here are graphics that you might have seen elsewhere, but they’re worth seeing again. If you want to dig a little more into the numbers, go to this website: mass shooting tracker.
