In The Wake Of San Bernardino, Let's Stop Pretending Anything Will Change

When I first heard about the mass shooting in San Bernadino, I wanted to write something meaningful and thought-provoking. I wanted to call for common sense gun control restrictions, and I wanted to beg my fellow Americans not to let this happen again in another city, town, school, church, or mall.

But then I remembered that I have already written that article. I have written it after every mass shooting this year –– and, if I wanted to, I could write it after all the other mass shootings that will occur this year. 

Other writers will write brilliant op-eds and gather horrifying facts about our gun culture but none of it will matter because tomorrow, the next day, or next week, another gunman in another town will slaughter the innocent while we clutch the same fucking guns that are being used to murder our children and yell about our rights. 

There will be different names and faces that will join the blur of the dead, and they will die because we simply didn't care enough to save them. We will pray for them, sure, but we won't protect them because we value their lives less than our guns –– and their bodies will be riddled with the bullets to prove it. 

Another day, another mass shooting. This is the America that we have created, and it's time to stop pretending that anything is going to change.