Views expressed in The Advocate’s opinion articles are those of the writers and do not necessarily represent the views of The Advocate or our parent company, Equal Pride.If you are a well-adjusted adult, you are heartbroken, horrified traumatized, and once again outraged at the latest mass shooting.
In Uvalde, Texas, 19 children and two of their teachers were gunned down so viciously, so immediately, and so intensely that DNA had to be sought from some of the families to ID the victims.Jake Tapper of CNN wondered aloud during his broadcast May 25 if photos should actually be shown of the child victims where they lay.
His question hung in the air of silence because, of course, he was talking to a camera. But his words penetrated me as a viewer and voter.
If America could see what the first responders saw (that caused one of them to pass out during a briefing in the hours after the event), then maybe we will not just ask but demand that changes be made to stop the carnage, whether it’s one gun death, 113 gun deaths a day scattered across America, or the mass shootings like the one in Texas that take place nearly every day in our country.But we actually don’t need to see images to rally a majority of Americans.