Every two years, we get a fresh chance to send pro-gun-safety leaders to Nashville and Washington, DC. We just haven’t been doing it. Meanwhile we keep asking ourselves, “How many more dead children will it take for our elected leaders to do something?” 

Those leaders have seen the same slaughter we have. And they haven’t done anything.

• Most of our state representatives can’t even discuss the simplest regulations without screaming that we’re trying to take away their guns. (They have to pass a test and get a license and insurance in order to drive. Are we taking away their cars?)
• Our congressman, Chuck Fleischmann, listened to a little girl describe seeing her friends and teacher massacred in their classroom, and then he turned right around and voted against legislation that would help prevent future school massacres.
• Our governor, Bill Lee, knows firsthand—as a father—what can happen when a teenager having suicidal thoughts gets hold of a gun. Yet he won’t even touch the subject of red flag laws.

So when we ask ourselves, “How many more dead children will it take for our elected leaders to do something?” we’re asking the wrong question. If they were going to grow spines, they would have done it by now. The only way we’re going to make change is by changing who represents us in Nashville and Washington, DC.

I’m not just talking about voting. I’m talking about organizing, strategizing, and engaging with our friends and neighbors who aren’t reliable voters but are scared for their kids and sick of the slaughter.

I’ll talk about that—and what gives me hope for change—in my next post.

Allison
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