EDITORIAL

A better way to honor them

Posted

Journalists across the country last week observed a moment of silence for the five staffers killed at The Capital newspaper in Annapolis on June 28 — scheduled to observe the one-week anniversary of the shooting.

Such moments are designed to honor the memory of victims, like Gerald Fischman, Rob Hiaasen, John McNamara, Rebecca Smith and Wendi Winters.

But we can really honor their memories by fighting for laws that would actually prevent such tragedies from happening in the first place.

After the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001, we became a country obsessed with preventing another terrorist attack. The efforts — while probably not always the most effective ideas — at least showed what Americans can accomplish when they put their minds to it.

Yet, that same determination seems absent, a least from lawmakers, when it comes to bringing mass shootings down to something that rarely happens, if ever. Not an occurrence so common, we’ve almost become oblivious to it. 

According to Mother Jones, the Annapolis shooting was the sixth mass shooting of 2018, already claiming the lives of 43 people and injuring 34 more. Since Republicans took control of the U.S. House in 2010, there have been 49 mass shootings, killing 465 people and injuring 889 others.

How many more moments of silence do we need for those senselessly killed and injured by gun violence before we finally stand up and do something?

The GOP claims to be pro-life — demonstrate it. Show how much you respect and honor life by enacting effective legislation that makes shootings like Annapolis a product of the past.

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