Stop setting off explosions until gun violence is ended

Last Updated on July 5, 2022, 1:55 PM | Published: July 5, 2022

Just a few hours before men with monstrous weapons opened fire on Americans celebrating this nation’s birthday, I was prepared to write a column about the work we must do to make the next July 4 truly worthy of the fireworks, parades and music. That work is even more important after the Independence Day shootings in Highland Park, Illinois and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but now feels like an emergency action to revive a nation that is quite literally dying.

The killing of six people in Highland Park should be enough evidence to convince most of America that real systemic elimination of assault weapons must happen yesterday, and the wounding of two Philadelphia police officers should persuade the rest. It all happened on our nation’s birthday, a sign that maybe we should no longer celebrate birthdays until we clean up our mess. 

Money and Trumpist cult madness makes persuasion nearly impossible. Following the Highland Park shooting, in which 22-year-old Bobby Crimo opened fire on the crowd using an AR-15-style assault weapon. Illinois Republican gubernatorial candidate Darren Bailey released a video calling for his state’s residents to “pray for justice to prevail, and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation.”

Bailey’s political career needs to end, and hopefully he ended it with his stupid, inhumane, hollowed-out, cynical and grossly insensitive messaging. His statement declared that July 4 was more important than any six humans, and that we have to “pray for justice.” No one should have to pray for justice – justice should happen without America being forced to wait desperately for divine intervention. 

Idiots like Bailey are familiar to Oklahomans, who have a governor bent on presenting himself as a hayseed Vladimir Putin. Having recently posted both a Soviet-style graphic of himself with the American flag and a photo of himself wake surfing, Gov. Kevin Stitt presents himself as a strongman when he is transparently weak, incapable of action when mass shootings took place in his own state. 

The difference in Illinois is that putzes like Bailey rarely get elected governor of that state, and he will likely be shamed so hard for his July 4 callousness that he desiccates and blows into Lake Michigan like the ashes of American fireworks. 

On July 4, my family and I celebrated with roadside-bought pyrotechnics — historically, I have considered fireworks the only reasonable use for gunpowder. But because I am on vacation and slightly less tuned into current events, I did not learn about Highland Park or Philadelphia until after we sent them skyward. 

In the light of morning, I’m starting to reassess. 

Maybe we should not celebrate the nation’s day of origin with explosions. Yes, it is how the U.S. gained its independence, but just as we should not apply 18th century morality to modern governance, nor should we set off explosions when they are causing so many of today’s deaths and injuries. 

Each gunshot that came out of Crimo’s weapon was a controlled explosion. If Crimo’s killing spree on a day of celebration teaches us anything, it is that maybe – just maybe – we’re doing it wrong.