After Newtown, our responsibility to act

Little can I add about the tragedy in Newtown, CT. I only think of  the senseless violence, the snatched innocents, and the abyss lurking the mothers, fathers, siblings, grandparents, friends, classmates, teachers... who right now, in their drug-induced sedation, already know that the pain will be even larger once they come to terms with the fact that they will not wake up from this nightmare.

It is not misfortune. It is not the terrible outcome of a mental disorder. It is not a piece of impactful news doomed to be replaced in the media agenda over the next two or three days. This needs to be a fist on the table. Americans must feel these deaths over their (or our) conscience and accept their (our) share of responsibility for having let this happen.

Buying a "legal weapon" (kind of an oxymoron in and of itself) in the US is easier than opening a bank account, getting a referral to see a doctor, registering to vote... it is easier than almost all everyday chores I can think of. Some people have issues, some people are mentally ill, some people for one reason or another snap and go nuts, some people are just plain evil. If the legal and societal norms we live by make weapons so readily available we are enabling those people to turn on society with loaded guns.

We cannot do anything for the victims of Newtown. We can do very little for their families. But we can stop this from happening again. Pick up the phone and call your representatives. Get organized to let government know that this is not about the right to bear arms as described some 230 years ago, but about the right to know that our children are safe today when we send them to school. Shame on us if we just repeat the same wasted mourning words and go on with our lives. Because this will happen again. And if we are not the victims, we will be accomplices, and ultimately guilty of the crime.