by David Safier
Darcy Burner is running for Congress in Washington, her third try. She's currently the president and executive director of ProgressiveCongress.org. She has a post up on Daily Kos, An adult conversation about guns that's worth reading in full. Here's an excerpt:
Earlier today, a gunman walked into a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, where people were watching the midnight showing of the new Batman movie. He fired gas canisters into the crowd, and then opened fire. At least 12 people are dead and 59 people are injured. My heart and prayers go out to all of them.
On the day Gabby Giffords was shot, I was picking up my son Henry from a lesson when I got the text message saying there had been a shooting. I’d campaigned with Gabby in 2006. Henry didn’t understand why I’d stopped getting into the car and started crying.
Walking back from a haircut the other day, I passed Café Racer, where on May 30th a gunman walked in and killed four people.
It's time we had an adult conversation in this country about guns.
On January 17, 1989, a gunman in Stockton, California walked onto a playground and opened fire, killing 5 children and injuring 30 more.
On July 1, 1993, a gunman in San Francisco walked into a law office and opened fire, killing 8 and injuring 6.
On April 20, 1999, two gunmen in Columbine, Colorado walked into their high school and opened fire, killing 13 people and injuring 21 others.
[The list continues with 27 separate incidents]
As a country, though, we have not had a real conversation about guns in many, many years. The National Rifle Association (NRA) threatens the career of any politician who so much as opens the conversation. As a consequence, our country has not discussed assault weapons – which have no use except killing large numbers of people in massacres like the ones I’ve listed. We have not discussed the fact that anyone can buy a gun at a gun show without any background check, even if they have a history of criminal violence. We have not discussed the expiration of the ban on large clips, which allow shooters to kill more people in a shorter time because they don’t have to reload. We have not discussed what a sensible, rational approach to regulating guns in our country might be.
Enough.
It’s time we took steps to stop the mass killings.
It’s time we had an adult conversation about guns in this country. The NRA can go to hell.
In deepest sympathy,
Darcy
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“It’s time we had an adult conversation about guns in this country. The NRA can go to hell.”
Claiming to want an adult conversation and then immediately following it with a curse of a group that represents millions of Americans seems to me to be the height of contradiction. Darcy Burner says she wishes to promote an adult conversation. Any adult conversation is very unlikely to begin with childish curses.
I personally believe that there are plenty of elected officials who are open to hearing ideas on how to reduce the size and scope of massacres such as the 33 referred to above but the ideas suggested had better be a darn bit more effective and realistic than those proposed by supporters of groups such as the Violence Policy Center.
It’s no surprise that Darcy would make such a strong, politically courageous, statement. If she makes it to Congress, she’ll be right up there with Grijalva in terms of principled leadership. I had the honor of getting to know during the 2008 campaign at various DCCC events and candidate training sessions. She’s absolutely the real deal. If you have a few spare bucks, you should send them her way.