Thread by @shawnavercher

My heart is still raw from the #BuffaloMassacre and I haven't fully grieved. I can't even remember the so-called "details"** of the "other" shooting(s?) from that same time period.

And here we are again.

**Based SOLELY on media coverage & NOT to make light of the lost lives.🧵

So what happens next? Do we run the playbook that is all too familiar?

Do we show a few images of the lost? Do we discuss the so-called "normal" background of the murderer? Do we allow so-called leaders dictate that it's too SOON to discuss anything? 2/

Perhaps NBC's Ben Collins can discuss the dental history of this one. Maybe Gov. Abbott can create a scenario where an army placed at each elementary school will make it all better. Or we can knock around some hallow statistics about mental health that no one wants to fund. 3/

And none of it will matter. Those burying their babies won't bother to read the insults to their loss. Those fighting are too exhausted and have heard it all. And those pleading for relief would simply love ANY sign that relief might be on the way. Ever. 4/

I covered Newtown. Live. On the air. For HOURS.

I saw diagrams of where bullet holes hit babies.

<<Decides to scream it again...>>

I SAW DIAGRAMS OF WHERE BULLET HOLES HIT BABIES!!!

And I thought, "This HAS to be the end of the bloodshed." And it just...wasn't. 5/

And I've organized. I've amplified. I've supported warriors like @shannonrwatts and @fred_guttenberg from a distance as much I know how to do - marveling daily at their strength - and it just feels like we are at Square 1.

Worse than that bc at Square 1 more people were alive.6/

So I'm mad enough. I'm privileged enough to have the energy to be put to work. I'm public enough to be able to contribute to whatever conversation needs to happen.

But I need people much smarter than me to just tell us: What the fuck do we do right now?? 7/

Now is the time where I'd usually feel the need to placate. I'd let people know I'm Texan, I own guns, etc. But fuck that.

I shouldn't need to reassure you that your toys are ok before you agree to come to the table and stop innocent people from living in a constant war zone.8/

We fly the flag of Ukraine in our social headers and we tsk tsk at "those poor people" who are in a war. And they DO deserve our support. And Ukrainians ARE suffering in a war.

But WHAT IS THIS?? We are losing over 53 people A DAY to gun MURDERS. A DAY!! A bus of people. 9/

Everything feels on fire. Covid. Price gouging. Roe. Racism. Transphobia. Voting. All of it. Just an absolute attack.

And it ALL costs lives. It is ALL tremendously important. We can't cede ground on a single thing I just named. But we have to also tackle gun violence NOW. 10/

I want every NRA-purchased politician who tweets out a Bible quote to sit in a room with the relatives of a dead child for one hour. Period. Then come and DARE tweet your sanctimony. Only then will we believe you own a backbone.

11/

I want every freak who dresses up their families with AR-15s for their Christmas cards to come dolled up to these funerals. Show us what you stand for. Come to the cemeteries & sport your finest plastic and metal that you clearly value more than these precious lives. 12/

There should never have been Parkland after Columbine.

There should never have been Las Vegas after Pulse.

There should never have been Buffalo after Charleston.

And my God there should have never been Uvalde after Sandy Hook.

We allowed it all. HOW?? 13/

Don't tell me to donate.
Don't tell me to pray.
And FFS don't tell me to reach out to my Senators: Rick Scott & Marco Rubio - one without a soul and the other without a spine.

But please, ANYONE, tell us all what we can actually do RIGHT NOW to make this nightmare end. FIN/

@threadreaderapp please unroll this so I can easily share it.