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Mass shootings: The time for patience has ended

Mass shootings: The time for patience has ended

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Mass shootings: The time for patience has ended

We should have run out of patience long before 20 more people were shot to death in El Paso last Saturday and then nine more early last Sunday morning in Dayton.

At a press conference Sunday, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine counseled patience after nine of his constituents were shot dead outside a bar in Dayton.

“I don’t think today is the day to try to draw lessons because frankly we don’t have all the facts,” DeWine said.

With all due respect, Gov. DeWine, the time for patience is over.

We were patient after nine people were shot to death as they worshipped in a Charleston church.

We were patient after 49 people were killed at the Pulse nightclub right here in Orlando.

We were patient after 58 people were mowed down at a concert in Las Vegas.

We were patient after 26 people were killed in a Texas church.

We were patient after 17 people were murdered at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

We were patient after 11 people were shot to death at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Patience is the problem, not the answer. We should have run out of it long before El Paso and Dayton. The politicians we elect to preserve safety and order, however, seem to have an infinite capacity for patience when it comes to gun violence.

In Florida, the politicians did nothing after the 2016 slaughter inside Pulse, aside from offering thoughts and prayers. After a bunch of surviving kids from Parkland got loud, the Legislature passed a couple of new gun restrictions in 2018, but then followed up this year by allowing teachers to carry handguns into their classrooms, hewing to the belief that the more guns the better.

Like Florida, Texas politicians are obsessed with guns.

Shortly after taking office back in 2015, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted that he was embarrassed that his state was lagging behind California in gun purchases.

“Let’s pick up the pace, Texans,” he wrote, directing his message to the NRA’s Twitter account so they could bear witness to his fealty.

On Saturday, Abbott was tweeting out prayers to victims and families, promising support and praising first responders, nice but empty gestures that do nothing to solve the crisis of large-scale human slaughter.

Abbott’s interest is focused on guns, not the violence they create in the wrong hands. He’s been on a tear the past few years, signing bills that allow people to openly carry handguns (it already was legal to openly carry long guns, like the one used in Saturday’s massacre) and permitting guns on college campuses.

Some of Florida politicians have been pining for Texas- style open carry and guns on campus for years. They just haven’t gotten there. Yet.

They also haven’t gotten anywhere on closing the loophole that allows people to sell firearms at gun shows and through private sales without a background check to see if the buyer has a felony conviction.

In Florida you can still buy a magazine capable of holding dozens of rounds of ammunition, saving killers the trouble of reloading too often. In Dayton, police said the shooter used a 100-round drum magazine in his rifle.

A proposed state constitutional amendment would ban weapons that can accept such high-capacity magazines, but Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has gone to court to prevent it from even getting on the ballot.

Politicians like Moody aren’t reflecting the interests of the people, who favor more gun control measures, according to polls. Moody and her ilk are, however, doing a swell job of shilling for special interests like the NRA.

This bloody beginning to August is all the more sickening for the probable connection to white supremacy in the El Paso attack. Our patience is long gone. Almost 30 people were killed this weekend in two separate shootings. What are the people who represent us going to do about it, besides counsel patience?

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