It’s “thoughts and prayers” time again for the NRA-paid politicians, bowing in obedience to the NRA and the gun industry whose wealth is derived from the blood of America’s slaughtered children. According to The Gun Violence Archive, 73 children age 11 or younger and 166 children age 12 to 17 have been killed so far this year. Since 2019, there have been 2,510 mass shootings. The same source lists 1,200 little ones, 11 and younger, and 4,840 children ages 12 to 17 have been killed. Since 2019, 189,982 Americans have died by guns. (Source: Gun Violence Archive for 2022-2023 and USA Facts for 2019, 2020, 2021).

But it’s too soon to talk about solutions, say the politicians. Louisville, Nashville, Uvalde, Parkland and Sandy Hook shouldn’t cause us to rush to rash decisions about gun control.

But let’s have some perspective. Three times as many Americans have died by the gun since 2019 than the 58,220 U.S. military who died during the entire Vietnam war. As reported in World Population Review, the U.S. has a gun death rate of 10.89 per 100,000. In comparison, Canada’s rate is 2.26 per 100,000 and United Kingdom’s rate is 0.24 per 100,000. If mental illness is evenly distributed among people — noting that the pro-gun activists assert more mental health treatment will take care of the problem — then how is it Canada’s and the U.K.’s rate of death by gun is so much lower?

It’s not mental illness, it’s the guns. If nothing is done, more little ones will die.

The bought-and-paid-for politicians who play Pilate can wash their hands and say, “I am innocent of this man’s blood,” but the innocent children are the witnesses. Their deaths call for more than “thoughts and prayers.”