Don't let them

 Don’t let them tell you it’s too soon. The fact is that it’s too late for the next massacre, and the one after that, and the one after that. The stockpiling is ongoing. But we want to mitigate the first massacre of 2020.

Don’t let them say it’s not terrorism. When the public is so scared and intimidated that it throws up its hands and says, “Nothing to be done!”– that is the textbook definition of terrorism.

Don’t let them talk about rights. The unalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness precede all others.

Don’t let them parse the classes of weapons. There is a reason we hand soldiers assault weapons, not rocks or pillows.

Don’t let them strawman you over self-defense or sports. Setting aside how sporting gunplay is or is not, setting aside the likelihood of homeowners being shot with their own weapons, this is not our goal. It never has been. Toddlers and suicidal people will still have free access to the guns in their homes, have no fear.

Don’t let them act shocked when weapons designed for no other purpose than to slaughter dozens of people are used to slaughter dozens of people.

Don’t let them offer thoughts and prayers. When those are cynical substitutes for plans and actions, they are far more abhorrent than silence.

Don’t let them pretend that they will hold off the artillery, ordnance and nuclear firepower of a superpower with their pea-shooters.

Don’t let them blame cable TV or video games or any other media. Imaginary guns are not implements of death.

Don’t let them perpetrate the myth of the “good guy with a gun.” Off-duty law enforcement officers and military personnel aside, it’s a myth.

Don’t let them ignore the experience of the rest of the planet.

Don’t let them portray an extremist minority as the moral backbone of the nation.

Don’t let them distract with talk about mental health (which they have no interest in addressing either) or domestic abuse (ditto) or international politics (of countries they can’t find on a map).

We are stronger. We are many. And we will prevail.