Haven’t we had enough yet?

When Sandy hook happened, my younger daughter was in elementary school and older one in middle school. I heard the news and frantically called my daughter’s elementary school just crying hysterically over the phone asking them their security protocol. I pleaded them to keep her safe. After Sandy hook, I went into some sort of mental shock. I kept imagining my daughter being killed by a school shooter. I saw pictures of the kids killed at Sandy hook and they are still etched in my mind. And I know I was not the only one that was shaken to the root of my being. It was unfathomable to imagine someone can kill 5-year-olds!

And I thought this is it. Now things will change. A strong gun control law will get instituted and no more gun violence. No more innocent people getting killed while living their day-to-day lives in schools, theaters, and grocery stores. This was a black eye for our country. We were ashamed in front of the world that we could not protect our elementary kids and I thought we will change the paradigm forever.

I WAS SO WRONG!!!

10 years later, another Sandy hook! 21 precious lives taken for no fault of theirs. 21 families shattered within minutes and hours. 21 souls disappeared from this world within minutes. And the kids who survived will have nightmares probably for rest of their lives. Once again, just like most of us, and just like many other times, I’m numb. But this time I’m mostly angry. What the F*** is wrong with our country. We are not solving the problem because we don’t want to.

We love our rights more than we love our kids.

This is not a political issue. It’s a basic human rights issue. How are we different than dictators who use army to kill and control? This is pure inhumane.

I’m bewildered on why haven’t been able to solve this.

We are the most power nation on earth and we can’t solve a gun violence problem and protect our kid?

We are the richest and the most advanced nation on earth and we haven’t been able to solve ONE problem for decades. Shame on us.

We have achieved things unthinkable at some point in time of history. Today we can connect with people all over the world instantly. We can have drones deliver stuff on our doorsteps. We even built reusable rockets.

But we did all those things. Why? Because we wanted to. So why can’t we bring all the smarts together and solve gun violence?

Why don’t we focus on solving basic human rights issue for the innocent citizens of our country like we are focusing on driverless cars and space travel and crypto currency?

We clearly have our priorities WRONG!

Mental health issue has become a scapegoat and a lame excuse for gun violence. This is just a topic for people to keep arguing and shy away from the real issue. There is no debate that we need to have access to mental health resources. But common sense says that is someone is mentally ill, you take away harmful things like guns from them, so they don’t hurt others and themselves.

I grew up in India and never saw gun or heard of any gun shooting my entire life there. Even police did not carry the gun, as far as I could tell. India never had gun violence. I’m sure people in other countries also have mental health issues but they don’t go around and kill others. Why? Because they don’t have open access to a gun. How hard is this concept to understand?

We, in United States have the highest number of deaths by gun violence among most advanced countries and second most by numbers at 37038 in the world. For per 100K population, United States is 10th largest in the whole world.

We are even worse than Iran in protecting our citizens in a day-to-day normal life. Let that sink in for a minute.

First gun violence I saw covered on live television was Virginia Tech shooting in 2007. I had goose bumps. How can anyone kill college students? They are our future. And how can we let a psychopath with a gun get on a college campus? That was just the beginning. Sandy Hook massacre in 2012 still gives me chills. I’m still not over that. We, as a county, killed 26 people, including 20 kids who were 6- or 7-year-old. Remember that incident if you have forgotten.

I thought this was it. Now we’ll have better handle on gun violence.

Progress over last 10 years — We have become de-sensitized to gun violence.

They may make national news, but only for few days or weeks and then we go on with our lives. It’s mind numbing.

Haven’t we had enough yet? What more do we need to see before we act?

Let every elected official in the entire country come up with one — just ONE PROPOSAL on how they will stop this continuous massacre. Then pick the best ideas and enforce those.

Let’s have a consortium of public and private sector and come up with laws that WORK FOR PEOPLE. Influencers like like Bezos, Musk and Gates, Hollywood, internet celebrities — everyone need to jump in.

There are many smart people in this country who can come together and solve ONE, just one problem and save our kids from dying. Only if they want to. Because where there is a will, there is a way.