Value & timing of talking about gun control

Sujal Shah wants to talk about

Value & timing of talking about gun control

but that conversation can’t advance today. It feels sanctimonious when so many people are dealing with grief, loss, & fear of loss.

Presidente de China @RSGAT 14 Dec

@sujal Respectfully disagree. Maybe the moment when our anguish and outrage are white hot is precisely the time to cut through bullshit.

Sujal Shah @sujal 14 Dec

@RSGAT that anguish and outrage won’t diminish tomorrow or the next day.

Presidente de China @RSGAT 14 Dec

@sujal It does though. Today I'm actually crying for people I don't know. Tomorrow I won't. In a month, it will just be 1 more mass shooting

Sujal Shah @sujal 14 Dec

@RSGAT right, I see what you’re saying. But then that’s the hard work - keeping people thinking about this beyond today.

Presidente de China @RSGAT 14 Dec

@sujal Outrage = insuperable enemy of folks who would, w/ obfuscation and misdirection, impede better gun control & access to mental health.

Julia Pistell @echochorus 14 Dec

@RSGAT @sujal Totally agree with you, Josh. Don't understand why we want emotion to die down before we talk about this.

Sujal Shah @sujal 14 Dec

@echochorus @RSGAT IMHO, good decisions are rarely made in the middle of strong emotions. Easy prey for demagoguery.

Presidente de China @RSGAT 14 Dec

@sujal @echochorus True, but no one's going to pass any legislation today. It can be valuable to start conversations amid strong emotions...

Julia Pistell @echochorus 14 Dec

@RSGAT @sujal Right. That's where I'm standing.

Sujal Shah

My only point is that today should be about the tragedy itself, to burn in the news and to cope with the loss & fear of loss that these events bring up.

We get wrapped up in hammering the stats, the policy ideas, and how "stupid" the other side is on this debates today, but the real work is how we keep this in the public eye going forward.

I also am seeing things like this: talkingpointsmemo.com which asks good questions. This is the nitty gritty of how we help prevent these sorts of tragedies in the future. Even on the mental care front, how would those laws work?

I'm just incredible sad & angry about this, and I'm not ready to have those conversations today. That's all I'm saying.

How Do We Fix This? talkingpointsmemo.com

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