On October 24th, a gunman attempted to enter a predominantly black church in Kentucky, found that the doors were locked, and decided instead to kill the two closest black people he could find in a grocery store nearby. During the attack, he told a white bystander, “Don’t shoot me. I won’t shoot you. Whites don’t shoot whites.”
That same day, fourteen explosives were intercepted on their way to prominent politicians including Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. Those who knew the perpetrator described him as intensely hateful and racist.
On October 27th, a gunman murdered almost a dozen people attending a baby naming ceremony at their synagogue, telling an officer, “I just want to kill Jews.”
In the span of these four days, homegrown terrorism ran rampant. The worst political development of this week is how numb politicians seem to be to tragedies like these.
I think that words are, in most cases, very helpful– kind words never hurt. However, I think we see a lot of responses like this:
without any action. If the most powerful people in the country can all agree on the objective wrongness of an action– a mass shooting, racial targeting, political persecution– then why can’t they do something about it? I understand that a lot goes on behind closed doors and I also understand that our two-party system can sometimes be a detriment to the formation of policies, but I think there are certain points of contention that should not be partisan. Gun control is one of them.
There is no easy solution to the gun control problem, but I am certain that guns are just that– a problem– that need to be dealt with. I am convinced that homegrown terrorism is fueled by hatred, the accessibility of weapons, and the normalization of violent attitudes. I would like to see all three of these problems addressed.
Hatred is an abstract feeling that is not grounded in logic. From my own experience, I feel that people who are prone to being hateful are those that feel threatened by the object of their hate. Straight men, for example, might hate homosexuality because it is threatening to their own fragile masculinity. White nationalists hate people of color because they are threatened by any power structure that does not put white people at the top.
The accessibility of weapons in regards to gun control is, like I mentioned, a complex issue that I don’t have an answer to (nor does anyone else it seems), but I think that to find a solution to the problem we need to first agree that the problem exists. It’s up to Republican politicians honestly to make their constituents aware of the pitfalls of loosely enforced gun control, instead of normalizing and encouraging violence through rhetoric (refer to my last post).
As for those of us who are not politicians, we still have a very important role in preventing homegrown terrorism. It is up to us to vote people into office who demonstrate genuine initiative to tackle the problem; if Congress and the President can work together to pass meaningful legislation, it might mean the difference between life or death for many innocent people.
This post is dedicated to everyone who lost their lives or livelihoods by the horrible events of last week.
Worst in Politics 
I cannot thank you enough for creating this post. Not only do you bring light to the atrocities of this world, and how our politicians seem to be nonchalantly reading them, but you do so in a way that makes it clear that we are suffering in this world. I agree with you in that guns are a problem, but I also feel people and their radical views are the problem too. That being said, we do need to consider why it is so easy for these people with messed up views to have access to guns. These very things end up taking so many more lives away than actually saving others. Politicians do need to step up and actually make a change, instead of being prepared to write the same messages, just framed differently, regarding the tragedies that take place in this world. Honestly, it is scary to be in a world where these type of events are more normal to see than not. I think you did an excellent job on this post and you really found a great way to pay tribute to those who lost their lives by these hideous crimes. We need to hold them, as well as politicians, responsible.
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Its insane how so many people have died due to the horrible gun laws America has. If these people were not given access to guns so many people would be alive. Politicians need to do better and the government needs to create better laws or stricter background checks. Something needs to be done. America has one of the highest gun-related crimes which is insane. I loved your post and how you shed light on the fact that we as voters are able to put the politicians into office.
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Good work! Come talk to me about this rn I’m bored
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You did an amazing job on this post, Nush. I’m really impressed with the way you familiarized yourself with this topic instead of just stating facts which a lot of pieces about these incidents tend to do (not yours, just the media in general). You also were able to hold back the anger that I’m assuming you have as I know I have it when talking about these issues that seem so common sense until you talk to someone who is radically ignorant. This was touching but also informative and you really went for the “scary” aspect, nothing scarier than the truth of homegrown terrorism.
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