Stephen King is best known for his novels and short stories–many of which have elements of fantasy and horror–but the author is now using his writing skills to chastise those who refuse to even consider sensible gun control legislation in America.
King wrote an essay shortly after the Sandy Hook school massacre in 2013 which left 26 dead, the majority of them children. And now King has taken to Twitter to comment on the terrible deaths of nine churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, writing:
“Until responsible gun owners support responsible gun control laws, innocent blood will continue to flow. How many times must we see this?”
On Twitter, King also noted:
“(There are) too many closed minds on gun control. Worse, far too many PROUDLY closed minds. Meanwhile, the American shooting gallery remains open.”
The Maine-based author, who has approximately 750,000 followers on his Twitter page–Twitter.King–also used statistical evidence to back up his anger with those who oppose gun legislation:
“According to Bloomberg Business, gun deaths will exceed traffic fatalities in America this year. Can’t put a seatbelt on a semi-automatic. Assault weapons will remain readily available to crazy people until the powerful pro-gun forces in this country decide to do a similar turnaround.”
I could not possibly agree more with Stephen King. We must, as a nation, come to grips with our perverse fascination with guns, which are truly the modern day weapons of mass destruction. When a mentally ill person can get a semiautomatic weapon and march into a school or a church to play out some sick fantasy or right some imagined wrong, it has all gone too far.
We have to ask ourselves if we have the courage to change now instead of waiting for the next tragedy to occur.
