Eight children are dead in Shreveport, Louisiana. Shot to death in their own homes, in their own beds, before the sun even thought about rising.
And you know what? In certain circles, in certain marble halls and on certain social media pages dripping with flag pins and folded hands, this is being called a win.
A success for the “guns everywhere” agenda. A celebration of Second Amendment freedoms. Eight small bodies, the oldest barely old enough to babysit, are the price of doing business. And they are paying it with every drop of blood.
Let us be as plain as a fence post.
A man named Shamar Elkins, a man with a history of pulling a gun on a car near a schoolyard, a man whose own family says was drowning in dark thoughts and a failing marriage, picked up a firearm.
And he killed Jayla, 3. Shayla, 5. Kayla, 6. Layla, 7. Markaydon, 10. Sariahh, 11. Khedarrion, 6. And Braylon, 5. He killed seven of his own children and a little boy who had the misfortune of being in the way.
This was a domestic disturbance, they say, as if that word covers the blood soaked into the carpets on West 79th Street.
It happened in the district of the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, who sent his thoughts and prayers. And that is fine.
Thoughts are cheap. Prayers are free. What costs something is action, and that is a line item this Congress refuses to fund.
Now, you might think this is a tragedy. And it is. But let us look at the calendar.
April 19th. National Second Amendment Day. A day for celebrating the right to keep and bear arms. A day for promotions at the gun range. A day for congratulating yourselves on your constitutional freedoms.
And what a celebration it turned out to be. Eight little victims.
Guns are now the number one cause of death for American children.
Number one. More than car seats. More than childhood cancer. More than the flu.
President Donald Trump, who has an A rating from the NRA and who has spent his second term dismantling the very office meant to stop this sort of thing, wants you to know that he stands with law-abiding gun owners.
He has made it cheaper and easier to buy silencers and short-barreled rifles. He has told the ATF to stand down. He has legalized forced-reset triggers that turn a semi-automatic into a machine gun.
He has, in short, taken the “thoughts and prayers” crowd at their word and given them the hardware to match.
You will hear the usual laments.
Mayor Arceneaux quoted John Donne. The council members issued statements.
There will be a prayer vigil. Candles will flicker. Tears will fall. And then, on Tuesday, the NRA will send another fundraising email.
The President will sign another executive order rolling back another safety rule.
And the gun lobby will clap each other on the back for a job well done.
They will say that the problem is mental health, not the weapon, but they cut funding for psychiatric care and made it easier for a veteran in crisis to buy a gun.
They have stripped funding from community violence interrupters. They have done everything except the one thing that works: making it harder for a violent, suicidal man to get his hands on a tool of mass destruction.
The coroner has released the names. Learn them. Jayla. Shayla. Kayla. Layla. Markaydon. Sariahh. Khedarrion. Braylon.
These are not statistics. They are not political footballs. They are not the cost of doing business for a free society.
They are children who are never coming back. And the men who run this country, who smile for the cameras and talk about constitutional rights, have blood on their hands. Not metaphorically. Not rhetorically. Actually. It is on the carpets of that house. And no amount of flag-waving will ever wash it out.
The facts are these.
A man bought a gun. A man used that gun to kill ten people, eight of them children.
That man had a history of violence. That man was in a mental health crisis. And the laws of this nation, cheerfully endorsed by the Republican Party and the President of the United States, made sure he had every legal right to do so.
That is not freedom. That is a suicide pact written in the blood of the very young.
If you are celebrating Second Amendment Day, you ought to look in the mirror and ask yourself what kind of person celebrates a holiday with a body count.
That is the question. And the answer, my friends, is not one that will stand up to the judgment of history. And that’s the way it is.