On the Highland Park Mass Shooting

Your town or city could be next.

Image courtesy: Jack Ohman/Sacramento Bee

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA.) - Add Highland Park, IL, to the shameful list of mass shootings. With over 300 mass shootings just this year, gun violence has now become as American as baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie.

In many towns and cities across the country, a traditional celebration of July 4th might include a parade, a barbecue or picnic, and then fireworks.

As this cartoon by Jack Ohman (Sacramento Bee) keenly depicts, there is an irony here when a mass shooting occurs on July 4th... the annual ritual celebrating our independence became a scramble to survive.

Nothing is sacred anymore.

This mass shooting comes on the heals of a domestic terrorism bill blocked by Senate Republicans that would have opened debate on hate crimes and gun safety. Then President Biden signed a very modest gun safety law.

The signing was followed by a Supreme Court decision striking down a New York law that placed strict restrictions on carrying concealed firearms in public for self defense — one step forward, two steps backward.

Clearly, "the right of the people to keep and bear arms” as interpreted by the Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller too often trumps public health and safety. When and where will the next mass shooting occur? Your town or city could be next.