John Mellencamp is speaking out against gun violence in America in the wake of the mass shooting at the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl parade that left one dead and 22 others injured.
“Excuse me for stating the obvious truth. I do so out of love for this country and the pain of learning, once again, that children have been killed by gun violence,” he shared in a statement on Instagram. “If we as a country want to find the collective will within ourselves to change our gun laws, let’s stop playing silly political games.”
Mellencamp suggests Americans need to see the real aftermath of a mass shooting, writing, “Show the carnage on the news. Show the American people the dead children and others who have been struck down. Show us what guns and bullets can do to the human body.”
He challenges the news media “to be brave enough” to show the public images of slaughtered children.
“Otherwise, I fear that too many perceive gun violence as an abstract; a story that’s repeated nearly every day to numbing effect,” he writes. He compares his idea to when the media showed Americans being killed in Vietnam and “there was overwhelming demand for that war to be ended immediately.”
“I say this as a father and a human being, with deep empathy for the parents whose children have had their lives ended so suddenly and so senselessly: Show America the carnage,” he concludes. “I am not being callous, and I know it will be painful to see. But, sad to say, I think it’s the only way to shock America out of its stupor.”
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