Shanghai Lockdown Day 60:

Proverbial food for thought from the East…For as crazy as our lockdown here may be, for as much as I and many of us may disagree with some Chinese government policies, I have to state this emphatically at this moment, above all:

Thank G-d, truly, military grade assault weapons do not flood China’s streets, gun and drug trafficking has severe consequences, and mass shootings are unheard of.

18 year olds are not allowed to walk into a shop and purchase military grade battlefield weapons designed for war. Now marketed, against the gun lobby’s own prior policies, directly as “Q-AR-15”s (in a nod to QANON) and “Go Brandon” ammo clips (as a gratuitous F—You to our nation’s President, like him or not). [see Ryan Busse’s article in this week’s Bulwark—Busse is a former firearms industry executive]

For all our problems here, students nationwide—in a nation of 1.4 billion people—can go to school in peace, not worried about sadistic gunmen attacking. No mass shooter drills required.

If the United States of America truly wants to retain its righteous position as a beacon of light and hope for the world, as it did when I was growing up, then we MUST change now.

We absolutely MUST force our representatives in state legislatures and Congress to pass at the very least the most rudimentary, most commonsensical, community protection laws. Let’s just call them that. It’s way beyond “gun control” now.

It’s about safeguarding our every livelihoods and lives in places of worship, grocery stores, schools.

I can tell you this for a fact as one living outside of the USA: Nations worldwide who previously admired and respected us, including China—where most folks still love meeting American folks—who followed our example, are diminishing rapidly in number.

Our children cannot—should not—MUST NEVER be sacrificed for the money hungry gun lobby, and their kill ‘em all for self-serving power sycophants.