A body strewn motionless across the pavement. A woman frantically applying chest compressions to it. A few feet to the side, another person left unattended while writhing in pain.

This is not an author’s vision of a dystopian world ravaged amidst an apocalypse — it is the Super Bowl parade in Kansas City, Mo.

The tragic reality is, as the Kansas City Chiefs celebrated their fourth Super Bowl win, a united city in raucous celebration was turned upside down. Drunken cheers were drowned out by sobering screams as gunfire rang out, leaving a young woman dead and at least 21 others injured. As many as 11 children, perhaps enjoying their first Super Bowl parade, were rushed to hospitals as their red Chiefs jerseys were stained a few shades darker. 

They weren’t the only children made victims in what should have been a safe setting — that very same day, four students were shot at Atlanta’s Benjamin E. Mays High School. School? The Super Bowl Parade? It really doesn’t matter in the end. 

This is America, where we are guided by the principles of liberty and freedom. This is America, where a democratic system gives citizens and politicians a degree of power to enact change as they see fit, to ensure that Americans can live in safety and prosperity. This is America, where weekly mass shootings tell a familiar story. This is America, where instead of gun control legislation, we offer our thoughts and prayers.

To lawmakers in Kansas City and throughout the country, how many children will be shot before you decide that thoughts and prayers won’t suffice? Is there a requisite amount of blood that must be spilled, a quota of lives ruined, people traumatized, families shattered and communities heartbroken? At what point do we admit that the lives saved by a Missouri resident’s ability to openly carry an assault rifle pales in comparison to the number of lives destroyed? 

At what point do we come to the realization that maybe the same weapons we give to our military are not to be brandished by our citizens? At what point do we come to the conclusion that, in the free state of Missouri, it is not in the citizens’ best interest for the law to authorize an individual to purchase a weapon of war without a background check or a permit?

The shocking news doesn’t stop there. Under Missouri state laws, you can purchase a firearm and own it even if convicted of a violent crime in the past. And don’t worry, if you own a firearm, like 48.8% of the state’s adult population, you won’t have to do any back-breaking work to keep folks safe — guns are not required to be locked up to prevent children from accessing them.

Many people who are opposed to gun control reform argue that these events aren’t reflective of all gun owners in Missouri and that gun ownership is generally safe, but some facts state otherwise. Missouri boasts the fifth-highest homicide rate in the nation, with 84% of homicidal deaths involving guns. Guns are the number one cause of death among children and teens in the state. But it’s not just Missouri — nothing takes more lives from children and teens in the U.S. than guns. 

Everytown Research projects that if every state had gun laws equal in strength to the nation’s strictest states — New York, California and Massachusetts, among others — 298,000 lives would be saved in the next decade. Moreover, of the gun deaths that do occur in states with strong gun laws, the majority are caused by weapons trafficked in from states with weaker laws.

In 40 of 50 states, assault rifles are legal, and mass shootings involving assault rifles cause six times more people to be shot than mass shootings carried out by other guns. A 2018 study found that mass shootings were 70% less likely to occur during a 1994-2004 span where assault rifles and high-capacity magazines were federally banned. If you want to bear arms for the sake of protection and safety, you are doing the opposite by owning an assault rifle. In fact, if you have your family and community’s protection and safety in mind, you are making them less protected and less safe by advocating for gun laws the likes of which we see in Missouri.

For every year we postpone reform, opting instead for thoughts and prayers, 7,957 children and teens are shot in the United States; that shakes out to 23 a day. Every year, 117,345 people are shot, or 327 a day. If you want to increase the chance of putting your family and community at risk, keep settling for thoughts and prayers; keep finding ways to blame mass shootings on anything but guns. Each day, as gunshots reverberate through our streets and pierce through hearts, our inaction proves that the love we have for firearms supersedes the love we have for our fellow citizens. 

Joe Henry, FCRH’26, is an Economics Major minoring in American studies and sports journalism from Duxbury, Mass.