Another day, another mass slaughter of little kids—and some adults—in their school, this time in Nashville. Next time, it might be in Ozark and my grandkids.
Hear the deafening silence? That’s the sound of right-wing religious figures not speaking out on this evil, which accounts for most of the deaths of children and young teens in America.
Remember last year when a killer armed with an assault rifle killed 19 little kids and some adults in Uvalde, Texas? Remember the shameful performance of the Uvalde police department? Remember the NRA meeting in Texas less than a week later, with Trump and Southern Baptist Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)? Cruz likes to brag he was baptized by my former pastor, Rev. Gaylon Wiley.
NRA supporters like Larry Gatlin believe “the best way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
The best way to stop these killers is to have effective laws in place to deny them the ability to be a “bad guy with a gun.” Of course, a stand such as this would require someone to be “pro-life.” Also, it would require giving up the blood money from the NRA.
A few weeks ago, Rep. Barry Moore (R-Ala., District 2, where I live) introduced a bill in Congress to declare the AR-15 the “National Gun of America.” This a slap in the face of every parent who has lost a child to a gun—of any kind.
I don’t hate guns in general or the AR-15 in particular. I carried an AR-15 my first tour in Vietnam and an M-16—a slightly modified AR-15—my second tour. But weapons of mass destruction should be available only to police and the military.
Carl Hess
Ozark, Ala.
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