Stop accepting gun culture ubiquity

Gun culture is everywhere. That needs to change if we want mass shootings to end in this country. If we want our children to live through their school years. If we want to go to places of worship without being shot at or attend a music festival and come home alive. If we want to drive on our nation's highways without bullets through our car windows. Or a holiday football watch party at a friend's house. If we want to go to the store or the movies.
Speaking of movies, I went to see "Little Women" the other day. In addition to the usual local ads for tire change places and day spas, was an ad for a gun shop. They were not promoting handguns and hunting rifles. They filled the screen with assault weapons and silencers. Seriously.
Then there are the gun shows, one held just a few weeks ago in my fairly small town. I know because of the billboard advertising it literally cast a shadow over the high school where I often substitute teach. Far too many schools - Sandy Hook, Parkland, Santa Fe, Savanah State, Columbine, Virginia Tech,  Jonesboro, just to name a few, have had deadly shootings on their campuses. Savanah State has had two. Security Baron's website includes this chart on school shootings from 1999 to 2019. What startles me most is how many of these I had forgotten or was learning about for the first time. And I thought I kept up with these things.
So what do we do?
Contacting elected representatives may seem like a lost cause as so many of them are beholden to the National Rifle Association. It is important, though, to continually remind Electeds that their duty is to their living constituents, not the death industry.
We can also make feelings known to businesses and organizations on either side of the gun issue.
Here is the text from an e-mail I just sent the owners of my local theater:

"Hello,
I was disturbed by an on-screen ad for a local gun shop's assault weapons and silencers before a recent "Little Women" showing at your Bastrop location. This is normalizing the death/gun culture and has no place in a family entertainment center. Usually your theaters have ads for innocuous local businesses like gift shops, car repair places, or a day spa. Focus on these, please. Promoting weapons of use only to mass murderers is harmful to my community and the culture at large. It is a (pardon the phrase) "trigger" to survivors of gun violence. It makes purchasing such weapons seem as banal and harmless as changing one's tires or getting a mani/pedi. It can also implant or encourage a mass murder fantasy in especially disturbed/angry members of your audience.
I like going to the movies. I do so for escape from the darkness around us all, such as mass shootings.
Please be mindful of who you sell ads to and what they promote.
Sincerely....."

We can also support and encourage businesses who stand up to the gun lobby, such as Dick's Sporting Goods, whose owner decided after the Parkland shooting to stop selling guns. His business is thriving.
We do not have to just accept gun culture and the death it brings daily. We can and must call it out, fight against it, and stand with those who reject and renounce it.

Congress should follow New Zealand's example on massacre response

The root of gun violence is guns.
Duh.
The simplest and most logical solution to gun violence is to limit access to the deadliest of weapons, such as semi-automatic assault-style weapons like the AR-15. This is the weapon of choice for mass shooters. It does not need to be in the hands of civilians. Period.
Australia figured this out. After a mass school shooting, the nation banned assault rifles. No more mass shootings.
New Zealand just figured it out, too. Hours after gunmen murdered 50 people at two Christchurch mosques, the nation's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Attorney General David Parker announced gun reform legislation, including a semi-automatic weapons ban. Similar legislation has been proposed and rejected before. Not this time.
That is how moral people in authority act in a national crisis.
Not with "thoughts and prayers."
Not with "Now, now, let's not rush to conclusions."
Not with talk of "hardening targets."
Decisive action.
We in America need some long-overdue decisive action from our legislators.
We have suffered too many mass shootings, too many to even count. High schools, college campuses, churches, daycare centers, night clubs, outdoor music festivals, and movie theaters are among the facilities targeted in recent years. The gunman is typically white, male, and armed to the teeth.
Our so-called leaders want us to be afraid of those from outside our country and outside our ethnic demographic, anything and anyone except the actual problem: guns.
In this country, guns are sacred. Our political officials too often value gun rights and NRA dollars over people's lives. That must change.
We must no longer tolerate a "do nothing" Congress on this issue.
It is not a matter of if but when and where the next massacre will happen on American soil. And it does not matter to some who the victims are. They can be children. They can be teenagers. They can be gay. They can be African-American church goers. They can be country music fans. "They" will not convince the American government to end the slaughters.
Only we altogether as the American people can and we must band together now. We must continue to push for gun reform until it happens. We can point to New Zealand as an example of a government that takes needed action. This can be done.
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