Faith Salie on threat of mass shootings: Do something

February 18, 2018

What to say about last week’s shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida? We asked for the opinion of “Sunday Morning” Contributor Faith Salie:

It seems like the same horrific story: another school, another man with a gun, innocent children slaughtered.

We’d like to call it unthinkable, but after Columbine, Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook, and now a high school in Florida, it’s not just thinkable, but sickeningly predictable.

Tori Stetzer (left) and Taylor Miler, both of Parkland, attend a candlelight vigil for victims of the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, Florida, February 16, 2018.

JOE SKIPPER/REUTERS

As David Hogg told us, the terrible truth is, it’s only a matter of time — maybe weeks, maybe just days — before the next one.

This generation of young people — kids who have to perform “active shooter drills” at school — has been mocked for its sensitivity, for needing “trigger warnings.” How can we blame them when they are not safe from actual triggers?

It seems like the same story, but this time there may be something different: American children are looking right at us, at the people who are supposed to take care of them — their parents, grandparents, teachers, at their Congresswomen and men and senators and at the President of the United States — and saying, DO SOMETHING!

Dear Marco Rubio,

As a student who was inside the school while an active shooter was wreaking terror and havoc on my teachers and classmates with an AR-15, I would just like to say, YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND.

— sarah // #NEVERAGAIN (@sarahchad_) February 16, 2018

Seventeen of this week’s victims have been silenced by a 19-year-old with an AR-15 rifle, so let’s give them a voice today.

For Alaina Petty, do something.

For Nicholas Dworet, do something.

For Aaron Feis, do something.

For Alyssa Alhadeff, do something.

For Martin Duque, do something.

For Scott Beigel, do something.

For Jamie Guttenberg, do something.

For Christopher Hixon, do something.

For Luke Hoyer, do something.

For Cara Loughran, do something.

For Gina Montalto, do something.

For Joaquin Oliver, do something.

For Meadow Pollack, do something.

For Helena Ramsay, do something.

For Alex Schachter, do something.

For Carmen Schentrup, do something.

For Peter Wang, do something.

We call the men who created our Constitution the Founding Fathers. And we use the document they created to thwart any attempt to restrict access to guns like the killing machine used in this and so many other shootings.

If those fathers of America knew their children were being massacred, I’d like to think they, too, would say: DO SOMETHING.

If we don’t, shame on all of us.

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