https://twitter.com/laurenevemay/status/927577753087631360
As Americans, gun violence touches us all in different ways. For some, it might be something we hear about on the news but never experience directly, and for others, it can cost us loved ones or cause fear in our day-to-day lives. For Chvrches leader and recent US resident Lauren Mayberry, these recurring stories hit her on a personal level because she had one strike her hometown while growing up in Scotland. The event was called Dunblane Massacre and resulted in the deaths of 16 children at a local school, though Mayberry was not attending at the time. In a video posted to Twitter, Mayberry notes that the incident resulted in major changes to the UK gun laws at that time, and is calling for the US to do the same following yesterday’s horrific Sutherland Springs church shooting in Texas.
“You can’t stop everything bad from happening in the world, you can’t take away people’s impulse to do things like this,” she said in the video, before adding, “but, you can restrict their access to resources that would allow them to murder on a much bigger scale.” In the clip, Mayberry calls out Donald Trump’s focus on mental health in the wake of the shooting and politicians like Mike Pence who take money from the NRA and gun lobby. As she notes: “Prayers are not what stopped more atrocities like Dunblane from happening in the United Kingdom. Gun control did.”
Check out the powerful video from the Chvrches frontperson above.
