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This Memorial Day, Let's Honor the Fallen by Ending Gun Violence


I woke up this Memorial Day thinking not of fallen soldiers, but of fallen children.

I thought of the 19 children and 2 teachers killed in Uvalde.

Then I thought of the 10 people killed in a Buffalo, New York supermarket -- parents and grandparents, just going to the grocery store.

Then I remembered the Taiwanese church shooting in Southern California: 1 dead and 5 injured as they gathered in a place of worship.

These innocent victims of gun violence and the many others like them have paid the price of our inaction. You might even say they've paid the price of our freedom.

When I do think of those military men and women who died defending our nation and its values of democracy, liberty, and justice, I can only think, what a waste. Is this what they died to protect?

When American soldiers gave their lives to defend the United States, did they do so for a nation in which mass shootings are so common as to feel like an ordinary occurrence?

When our soldiers died to liberate people from authoritarian regimes so that the children in those countries would not have to live in the constant fear of a senseless, bloody death, did they ever believe that children in their own country would face such fears on a regular basis?

Some of you might object that our soldiers died to defend our constitution, and you would point out that the Second Amendment right to bear arms is part of what they swore to protect. I hear you. I've heard your arguments so often I could recite them in my sleep. But common sense gun law reforms will save lives, regardless of our differing interpretations of that amendment.

We must find bipartisan solutions to gun violence, not only for the sake of our children, but for the sake of the military men and women whose memory we honor today.

Those in the military wield weapons like the AR-15 so that ordinary citizens don't have to -- so that we can be free to go to church and school and the grocery store in peace.

Let's honor their sacrifice with our voice and our vote.

Here's some info on the bipartisan efforts currently underway:




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