Please say these names and remember them: Cooper Roberts, age 8, and Aiden McCarthy, age 2. These two children were some of the victims at the recent mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, on July 4.

Aiden was pried from beneath his dead parents’ bodies, covered in their blood. He will never really know them, save for pictures and stories that his grandma will tell him as he grows older.

Cooper remains in critical condition, his spine severed by a bullet fired from a high-powered rifle. A rifle that could shoot 45 bullets in less than one minute, sowing a lifetime of death and destruction for many hundreds of families of this town – including many children who witnessed the massacre, as well as their parents, grandparents and neighbors.

Cooper and Aiden will survive. Many others will not. Two hundred twenty people died nationwide over the same weekend, according to the Gun Violence Archive. When will it stop? The plain truth is, it will never stop until we gather the political and social will to overcome the culture of death that is considered an unalienable right by politicians who are bought and paid for by the gun lobby.

If Aiden were Mitch McConnell’s grandson or Cooper were Susan Collins’ nephew, what would their response be?

Irving Williams
South Portland

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