CHARLESTON, SC (WCSC) - The suspect accused of fatally shooting nine people at Emanuel AME Church Wednesday night has been identified. Law enforcement officers in Columbia have identified the shooter as 21-year-old Dylann Roof. Authorities say a manhunt is underway for Roof. Roof is described as a white male, 21 years old, slender/small build, gray sweat shirt, blue jeans and clean shaven. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous…. According to police, nine people were killed after shots were fired during a prayer meeting inside Emanuel AME Church on Calhoun Street around 9:05 p.m. Police Chief Greg Mullen said officers arrived to find eight people dead inside the church. A ninth victim died later at a nearby hospital. Three people survived the attack, Mullen said.
Like many of us, I woke up this morning to the news of yet another senseless, tragic mass shooting…and, like many, I find myself with one simple yet intractable question: “Why??” Why do we continue to condone an environment in which those who refuse to consider common sense gun control are allowed to carry the day?
Many of the details remain to be filled in, but the broad outline of the tragedy is as simple as it is familiar: An angry White Male walks into a public area- in this case a church- and opens fire, killing nine innocent people. That we’re once again having this conversation should be sufficient cause for reasonable people to re-examine the role of guns in our society..and their far-too-easy availability. When there are those who protest common-sense restrictions designed to keep guns out of the hands of (among others) ex-felons, domestic abusers, and the mentally ill, it’s not unreasonable to wonder what sort of monsters we’re dealing with. I’m not talking talking about killers; I’m talking about those who do everything short of loading the gun and handing it to them.
There are always those who proclaim “it’s too soon” after such a horrific tragedy to discuss our (sick and unhealthy) relationship with and devotion to guns. The problem is that it’s always “too soon.” Gun rights advocates advocate for waiting until the emotion of the moment subsides, knowing full well that it’s a delaying tactic. They know that if we wait because “it’s too soon,” our collective attention will soon be directed elsewhere. Any momentum gained will be lost, and the status quo will continue apace.
If we do nothing, if we allow gun nuts and their fellow travelers to dominate the discussion, the tragedy in Charleston will quickly become just another unpleasant memory. Those who fight for common sense gun control will once again be fighting an uphill battle. When will we be moved to take action? When will we be moved to DEMAND action? When will we stand up to gun nuts, ammosexuals, and the NRA, who clearly care more for their weapons than they do for human life (Hey, as long as it’s someone else burying their kids….)?
The answer to that question seems to be never…because it’s always “too soon.”
Samuel Wurzelbacher (“Joe the Plumber”), once wrote that “your dead kids don’t trump my constitutional right.” That he and his ilk are allowed to carry the day amounts to an implied endorsement of this monstrous sentiment. OF COURSE our kids- dead or alive- trump your sick, twisted bastardization of what you deem your “constitutional rights.” If you believe honoring your “rights” means turning a blind eye to an environment that makes mass shootings easier, you’re a monster…and you shouldn’t be allowed to set the rules for this conversation. There’s nothing in the 2nd Amendment- the most willfully twisted and misinterpreted 27 words in the English language- that even implies the right to carry ANY sort of weaponry anywhere one chooses.
If you don’t agree with that, consider this: What’s the difference between walking into a church heavily armed and walking into an airport, a mall, or other public area heavily armed? The difference is a split second; that’s all it takes to make the transition from “exercising constitutional rights” to mass murder. If you’re willing to accept that risk, you’re a monster.
MSM "hard at work" trying to decide if massacre that happened at SC AME church was Terrorist Act. #CharlestonShooting pic.twitter.com/AwAqRId0d2
— ElmOnTeamHillary (@lordxmen2k) June 18, 2015
Nine people were shot, some fatally, inside one of Charleston’s oldest and most well known black churches…. A bomb threat complicated the investigation and prompted police to ask nearby residents to evacuate.
Reporters and other onlookers huddled at the scene awaiting details on what could prove to be one of the worst mass shootings in South Carolina history….
Police and emergency vehicles swarmed several blocks surrounding Henrietta and Calhoun streets, just east of Marion Square. Barricades blocked off several streets to traffic, and police asked nearby residents to leave their homes.
The shooting occurred around 9 p.m. inside Emanuel AME Church at 110 Calhoun St. Police were seen exiting the 19th century church, and their presence extended blocks beyond the site.
This senseless mass murder brings up the same questions for me that every other mass shooting incident does: When do we decide to face reality and address the core problem? When do we recognize that allowing anyone and everyone- including criminals, domestic abusers, and the mentally ill- to own guns enables those psychopaths and murderers who believe they have the right to exterminate others? When do we stop opposing common sense gun control and recognize that human life is of far more import than “gun right?”
The particulars of the tragedy in Charleston are only compounded by those who refuse to countenance the discussion of how to employ common sense gun control to help make our world safer. If you refuse to recognize the role of easy availability of guns in these sorts of incidents, you’re condoning the actions of Dylann Storm Roof, just as you gave Adam Lanza and so many others a free pass.
The #Charleston murderer was given a gun by his father as a 21st birthday gift in April. He used it to kill 9 people.
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 18, 2015
#NRA & gun nut translation: Guy arrested on drugs, trespassing had right 2 arms. 9 Afr Americans didnt have right2life #CharlestonShooting
— Cliff Schecter (@cliffschecter) June 18, 2015
It’s not “too soon.” If anything, it’s almost too late, though I will never give up the belief that good people can triumph over gun nuts, ammosexuals, and monsters like Wayne LaPierre and Larry Pratt. This conversation should have been started, conducted, and completed long ago. Each time a mass shootings occur, good and decent people exclaim, “No more! Never again!”…and each time, they drop the ball and allow ammosexuals and gun nuts to ensure that status quo marches on. As long as blood continues to run, the gun industry profits…and as long as they’re not burying their own, it’s all an abstract concept.
I’m as tired of the endless drumbeat of senseless tragedy as I am sickened by those more concerned with their precious “gun rights” than the value and fragility of human life. I’m tired of parents burying children, of children burying parents, of spouses burying their loved ones. More than anything, I’m sick of people desirous only of doing the right being thwarted by entrenched interests whose profit margins are pumped up every time a mass shooting occurs.
There are actually groups working to defeat the monsters who refuse to even consider common sense measures that might well help reduce the likelihood of events like what transpired in Charleston. They deserve our support; it’s the only way Good can have any hope of defeating the Evil that continues to dominate the discussion.
It’s not “too soon.” Now is the perfect time, and if you pass on the opportunity to become part of the solution, you’ll be part of the problem.
“No more. Never again.” Can’t we work to make those words more than the hollow, meaningless expressions of impotence they currently are?
