John Mayer’s Tweets Reframing The Gun Control Debate Are A Powerful Starting Point

Late last evening, a truly disturbed individual continued the unfortunately uniquely American trend of mass gun violence, shooting into a crowd at a concert in Las Vegas with an automatic weapon. Of course, the usual round of debates will begin, starting with “How in the world is it still legal for individuals to legally and easily purchase weapons designed for the sole purpose of killing a lot of people very quickly?”

Social media is buzzing with folks sharing their opinions, and rocker John Mayer is no exception. However, rather than evoking the terms “gun control” or “assault rifles” — two terms that bring Second Amendment activists running to pedantically debate the minutiae of the terms rather than the need for comprehensive policy — Mayer made an effort to describe the problems being faced in terms of their impact on society.

“I’m a logic and reason guy. I like to remove emotion (impossible today) and look at an issue in a theoretical vacuum to make sense of it,” he wrote, before clearly and concisely stating his position. “Lawmakers and influencers: if you’re not doing everything in your power to at least *reassess* the threat of mass murder, why can’t you come out and tell us that this is the life we’re going to have to accept? That these are the new terms?”

“If you’re not at least trying to fix this, you’re effectively telling the country in your (in)actions that this somehow acceptable,” he concluded before again imploring legislators to rethink the issue in terms of its effect on everyday life rather than simply throwing up their hands and assuming there’s no solution.

The full thread can be read below, and kudos to Mayer for using his platform to confront this brutal reality, and attempt to help our country change it.