If ‘now is not the time,’ when will it be?

Bill Knight column for Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, Feb. 19, 20 or 24

It’s been days since 17 people were killed and 15 injured by an assailant, a member of a white supremacist group, armed with a “legally obtained” AR-15 semi-automatic rifle at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., so another mass shooting might have happened since.

Americans’ thoughts were with victims and their families.

Americans’ prayers were with victims and their families.

Americans’ actions were NOT with victims and their families – or future victims and families.

The gun industry, its mouthpiece the National Rifle Association and its own bought-and-paid-for politicians may dust off their typical sayings: “They’re in our thoughts and prayers,” “The problem is the mentally ill,” and “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Their thoughts and prayers are insincere. And concerning action, as James says in the Gospel: “What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,’ but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.”)

Seventeen more are dead, too.

And, sure, guns don’t pull their own triggers and don’t aim at the targets of killers who wield them. “Cigarettes don’t kill people,” it also could be argued. “People kill themselves with cigarettes.”

But think about the logic: “Nuclear missiles don’t kill people, people kill people.”

Dumb.

Maybe context is needed.

The 30 mass shootings since the year began:

Feb. 14 Pompano Beach (Parkland), Fla.; Feb. 13 New Orleans, La.; Feb. 11 Detroit, Mich.; Feb. 10 Paintsville, Ky.; Feb. 7 Lake Worth (Lantana), Fla.; Feb. 5 Colorado Springs, Colo.; Feb. 3 Cleveland (Garfield Heights), Ohio; Jan. 31 St. Louis, Mo.; Jan. 28 Melcroft, Pa.; Jan. 28 Reading, Pa.; Jan. 28 Indianapolis, Ind.; Jan. 27 Los Angeles, Calif.; Jan. 27 Bowling Green, Ky.; Jan. 25 Washington, D.C.; Jan. 23 Philadelphia, Pa.; Jan. 23 Benton, Ky.; Jan. 21 Orlando, Fla.; Jan. 21 Chicago, Ill.; Jan. 17 Washington, D.C.; Jan. 16 York, S.C.; Jan. 15 Alachua, Fla.; Jan. 14 Eutaw, Ala.; Jan. 14 Madison, Ala.; Jan. 12 Nashville, Tenn.; Jan. 11 St. Robert, Mo.; Jan. 7 Union Springs, Ala.; Jan. 7 Plantation, Fla.; Jan. 5 Hattiesburg, Miss.; Jan. 4 Brinkley, Ark.; and Jan. 1 Huntsville, Ala.

That somber, shocking list is from gunviolencearchive.org.

“This happens nowhere else other than the United States of America – this epidemic of mass slaughter, this scourge of school shooting after school shooting,” said U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy, the Democrat from Connecticutt, where people were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. It’s “a consequence of our inaction”

Some, such as U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), say “now is not the time” or it’s “too soon” to demand action. That’s also dumb. Has enough time passed since Sandy Hook that discussion can occur? It’s certainly not to soon for the American Psychological Association to consider this public-health crisis and advise “Talking to your children about the recent spate of school shootings.”

To be sure, thoughts and prayers can be kind and effective in some measure. But when uttered by elected representatives who do nothing, thoughts and prayers MEAN nothing. If the officials don’t or won’t act, they should go.

Even non-political public figures see a need. Chicago Cubs All-Star Anthony Rizzo (a 2007 graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School) said, “This is out of control and our country is in desperate need for change.”

James saw the connection between need and action almost 2,000 years ago. Will we now?

Ever?