The War in our Midst

The War in our Midst October 7, 2015

Andy Parker:

We are engaged in a war in this country. It is a war between rational, responsible people and self-interested zealots; a war between good and evil. It is a war to decide whether we will continue to let the senseless tragedy of gun violence continue. It is a war to put reasonable safeguards in place to prevent incidents like that which occurred in Oregon yesterday.

On one side of that war is a group that is successfully fighting to ensure that a discussion to try to find solutions never takes place. Everyone knows of whom I’m talking: the National Rifle Association. An organization that had at its founding the core mission to teach firearm safety, now has set itself on a course to prevent any laws from being enacted to do just that. And some of our legislators are complicit in this crime. Is the support of a fringe element of the NRA so important that they are willing to accept our children as collateral damage?

On the other side are the families and their circles of loved ones whose lives have been shattered by the devastation of gun violence. And every year, 30,000 new families and circles of loved ones are inducted into this fraternity. This is the fraternity my wife, Barbara and I joined almost exactly a month ago.


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