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I was originally writing about how saddened I was to welcome Honolulu and Pensacola to the ever-expanding club to which no one should belong. Then came Jersey City. Every time a massacre occurs, I feel thrust back into my own personal version of the movie Groundhog Day. I try to stay informed of news on a regular basis, but when I tuned in, and saw emergency vehicles and first responders, it brought me back to 10.27. Alas, it does every time. But this time they were again after the Jews.

What is it about America that we specialize in mass murders? From information I’ve culled, no country on the globe comes close to our frequency. What makes any citizen think that they have the right to end the lives of others, that this action will solve their own problems? Clearly the deterrents that we have in place are ineffective, for if they were, I would not be composing this blog.

The massacre at Columbine High School was on November 9, 2009. Since that date, there have been eleven school shootings. While I was unable to find sufficient data going back to the Columbine High School shooting, since the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012, I uncovered some disturbing information, although the research is dated from April of this year:

• There have been 2,000 mass shootings since the Sandy Hook Elementary School
• There will have been 2,556 days on the calendar from December 14, 2012, to December 14, 2019. Do the math.
• Approximately 2,300 people have been killed
• Approximately 8,400 people have been injured

One would think that “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” would be a priority of our elected leaders on the state and federal level, yet they continue to fail us. Many people thought that the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School would create such an outcry that legislators would act, that the murder of children would move them, yet they did not. Then many people thought that the energy and activism of the students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School would move our legislators to act. Some laws were enacted in Florida, yet our elected leaders in Washington, DC, failed us again. Why is it that societal needs are ignored, that the word bi-partisan seems to have become an endangered species? I don’t want to hear about blame. We would like to think that we send intelligent, creative minds to Washington. They need to figure it out. Their failure is deafening and life-threatening.

Inaction after Sandy Hook, inaction after Marjory Stoneman Douglas, inaction after the Tree of Life – the list is painfully long. I shudder to think what horror would occur for federal legislative action. So should you.