Last weekend video circulated online of gunshots stopping a Little League Baseball game in Wilson, North Carolina. Not even two months since the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 students dead, and our nation’s kids remain unsafe doing basic activities. Thankfully, nobody was injured or killed in North Carolina, but that seems like a matter of luck.
AGAIN: Children at a Little League baseball game in Wilson, North Carolina, had to run for cover from gunfire – some parents said they thought their children were targeted.
Kids arenāt safe anywhere in America.
š„ @WRAL #ncpol pic.twitter.com/bVSIhokkqs
— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) July 12, 2022
South Durham Little League has pulled its 8/U and 9/U teams from the upcoming state tournament. An announcement was posted via the their Facebook account.
“Some of you are aware that there was a shooting during the 8U State Tournament in Wilson, NC this morning. Our 8U Orange All Star team was playing a game, along with several other teams. We are extremely grateful no one from our team or any Little League team was physically hurt and all players, coaches, families and umpires are safe,” the statement read.
“The executive committee of South Durham Little League, in consultation with the coaches of the 8U Orange All Star team and the 9U All Star team, has made the decision to pull both teams out of the NC State Tournament that was being played in Wilson, NC. This was not a decision made lightly, but it also was not a difficult decision for us to make. The events were too traumatic for us to even consider having the teams return to Wilson to play.
“We are not alone in deciding not to return. At the time of writing this, 4 of the other 6 leagues participating in the 9U tournament and 5 of the other 11 leagues in the 8U tournament have withdrawn.”
Again it’s lucky that nobody was hurt or injured, but this points to the prevalence of guns in our society and the danger they can cause.Ā
National database Gun Violence Archive has recorded 23,515 deaths attributable to guns this year, and we still have five and a half months left. 332 mass shootings. Of those 23,515 deaths, 897 were children age 17 and younger.
If schools and baseball fields aren’t safe for kids, where is?
This country’s obsession with guns is weird and extremely dangerous. However polling data indicates almost three-quarters of Americans think that gun violence is a big or moderately big problem. And a majority of Americans think that theĀ epidemic of school shootings could be stopped with drastic changes in legislation.
Among all other economically developed nations, the United States far surpasses them all in gun related deaths. Major point of difference? Gun laws in the other countries are far more restrictive.
Given all of this data and the will of the people, why are politicians committed to do nothing? We can point to the NRA, lobbyists and Super PAC groups. But the reality is one side of this country’s two-party government system has decided to make guns and the safety of its citizenry a political issue to consolidate minority rule.
As for the South Durham Little League, the adults in charge seem to understand what matters.
“We are also looking for resources to help players, coaches and parents process the trauma they experienced today.”
Too bad the people we’ve elected to govern don’t exercise the same level of humanity.
