Another mass shooting.  Ho-hum. Another angry letter to the editor. Ho-hum. Another plea from do-nothing politicians to keep those slain in our thoughts and prayers. More hollow chatter about a ban on assault rifles.

Perhaps we should pray for those who will be shot later this week. Or next month. And hope the total for 2023 doesn’t reach 600 mass shootings. Isn’t 501, almost two a day, enough?

The number dead has become just that — a number. Not human beings with lives to live and a future to look forward to. We the people in order to form a more perfect government must elect those who can change what’s been happening for far too long and far too many times. We the people need to know who in Congress, and those hoping to win the public trust in 2024, will work to protect their countrymen from being shot while shopping, going to school, praying in church … or bowling with friends.

We the people can change things. We can stop the madness when we stop electing those who say it’s not guns, it’s people who kill people. Wrong. It’s people with guns who kill people.

Michael O’Looney

Talent