I’m proud to be an American.

People from everywhere converged here – by choice or not – to form a country, one of the most influential and powerful in the world. We encourage imagination. We are more than the sum of our parts – and more than any one part alone. We gave the world jazz, baseball and drive-in movies. Miles Davis, Babe Ruth and Meryl Streep.

But in the last 70 years, one thing has been to our everlasting shame.

Mass murder with guns.

People were probably always able to walk into a place and start shooting; the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre was 95 years ago. But especially since the 1960s, the number of horrific multiple killings – of people seemingly at random who had no idea they were targets – has grown wildly.

The first in this trend was the 1966 shooting at the University of Texas. A sniper climbed the Main Building tower and shot away for more than 90 minutes before being killed by police.

The 15 people murdered that day was the most fatalities in a mass shooting – a record that did not last long.

The killer in that case might have had brain tumor issues that contributed to his violence. One would think that, particularly with something as lethal as a gun, making sure people with such problems are not given access to sophisticated weaponry.

Right. (use sarcastic tone)

About as long as these shootings have increased, forces who support unlimited firearms have been not just pushing back against regulations, but loosening them and making it easier to get guns.

They cower behind the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The one that starts “A well regulated Militia…” As if that would fit the description of who these people are.

At the same time, the weapons have become more sophisticated in terrible ways. The weapon of choice in mass killings is often the ArmaLite Rifle-15 (that’s what AR stands for) or its copycats, a semi-automatic weapon that can fire hundreds of bullets in a minute with devastating power.

This confluence of events has led to a travesty. There is no place in the United States safe from anyone with a warped idea of revenge, justice, societal change or fun.

Grocery stores. Movie theaters. Hospitals. Nightclubs. Places of worship. Workplaces. Post offices. Concerts. Parades.

All are horrific. But the places that strike me as the most depraved and obscene are schools.

The murders at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, in December 2012 should have been the last straw. Someone decided to kill kids and educators that day, after first killing his mother. Most of the victims were in kindergarten and first grade.

There was revulsion and there were tears. Tears galore. There were thoughts and there were prayers.

What there wasn’t was anything done.

Two states, Connecticut and New York, took steps to limit semi-automatic weapons. But the federal government, despite President Barack Obama’s eloquent, heartfelt plea, did nothing.

Because members of Congress – of both parties, but Republicans especially – took their marching orders from a bag of pus and puke that headed the National Rifle Association. 

That had the unmitigated gall to tell the world that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

These shootings take place with hundreds of well-trained law enforcement personnel present. Or none. It doesn’t seem to matter. 

To add insult to injury, there were other worthless trash bags going around saying shootings like this were hoaxes aimed at taking away Americans’ guns; that the mourning parents were actors and the incident never happened.

If this nation couldn’t act when 5-year-olds were murdered, it seems like a reach to believe there’s anything that will make this nightmare end. 

That doesn’t mean we should stop trying. It’s not about ending the Second Amendment because, believe it or not, the Second Amendment has nothing to do with this. This is just greed, selfishness and a lack of respect. 

It would do nothing to end Americans’ rights if we banned weapons that kill a lot of people in a short time, if only because those people being killed had a right to live that supersedes even the Constitution.

I would be proud to be able to say our home is the safest place in the world. Can’t say that right now.