Yesterday I shared a blog post about the anniversary of the shooting in Tucson. It was pointed out to me later that I had made a rather embarrassing typo in the title (“Tucson” in in Arizona; “Tuscon” is Italian), so I’ve reposted with a new permalink. The issue remains a serious one, with over 2,000 American children EVERY year murdered by gun violence. And Tom Paxton’s song, linked to in the post, is powerful and deeply moving.
Today is the second anniversary of the mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in which six people lost their lives and Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head. In the intervening years we have seen similar shootings at an Oakland, California college, a Sikh temple in Wisconsin, a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, and, most horrifically, a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school. Sadly, the actual list is far too long for me to recount – the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence lists over 70 mass shootings since Tucson, and that only tells a small part of the story. Every day in the United States, gunfire kills 87 people – 8 of them children, 5 of those murder. That’s over 100 Newtowns every year, and most of us don’t even notice it.
After the Newtown shooting last month several gun control opponents cited a mass stabbing in China, correctly pointing…
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The Song and the Sigh 
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