America, We Are Drowning in Our Own Blood — And We’re Too Weak to Care

By: Donovan Martin Sr, Editor in Chief

Image Credit: Pexels

On August 27, 2025, in Minneapolis, a place that should have been filled with the innocent joy of children returning to school, we instead witnessed the grotesque reality of America’s gun obsession. At the Church of the Annunciation, during a back-to-school Mass, 23-year-old Robin Westman—armed with a legally purchased rifle, shotgun, and pistol—opened fire through the church windows. Two children, ages eight and ten, were killed. Seventeen others, including fourteen children and three elderly parishioners, were injured. Westman died by suicide at the scene.

This is not an isolated incident. This is America.

In 2025 alone, there have been 268 mass shootings, resulting in 262 deaths and 1,161 injuries. That’s more than one mass shooting every day. And yet, we do nothing. We offer thoughts and prayers, post hashtags, and move on. The cycle repeats. The outrage fades. The bodies pile up.

We have become numb to the bloodshed. We have accepted mass shootings as part of our daily lives. Schools are now equipped with drones to patrol for potential shooters. Children wear Kevlar backpacks. Doors are reinforced. Metal detectors are commonplace. This is the new normal. And it’s disgusting.

Our politicians, the so-called leaders of this nation, are complicit. They are bought and paid for by the gun lobby, too cowardly to enact meaningful change. They offer empty condolences and then return to their corporate donors, ensuring that the flow of blood continues. They are weak, spineless, and utterly useless.

Let’s be perfectly clear: the people we elect to protect us are failing us every single day. The legislators who claim they “support the Second Amendment” while doing absolutely nothing to curb this carnage are moral cowards. They hold up the blood-soaked flag of freedom while allowing children to bleed in classrooms. They are either criminally negligent, willfully blind, or both. Every one of them who cashes a check from the gun lobby while pretending to care about public safety deserves to be named, shamed, and held accountable. The gun manufacturers who churn out high-capacity rifles and semi-automatic weapons for profit—knowing exactly what they will be used for—are as complicit as the shooters themselves. They have monetized terror. They have commodified death. They have made mass shootings an industry. And yes, they can go fuck themselves.

There are a few politicians who fight for a sane, normal society. Those who push for universal background checks, limits on assault weapons, and funding for mental health resources are heroes in a system that has otherwise gone to rot. But even they are drowned out by a chorus of spineless opportunists who fear the NRA more than they fear the grief of grieving families. They are shouting into the void, fighting against entrenched corruption and blood money, and yet their voices barely make a dent because our elected officials have sold their souls—and our children—for campaign cash.

And let’s not kid ourselves: the silence of Congress is deafening. The same people who promise “thoughts and prayers” in the immediate aftermath are the ones who ensure this becomes routine. They normalize slaughter, institutionalize despair, and give themselves awards for doing nothing. They’ve made mass murder predictable, expected, and—God help us—ordinary. The failure is systemic, deliberate, and absolutely unforgivable.

The gun culture in America is toxic. It is rooted in fear, ignorance, and a misguided sense of freedom. We idolize the gunman, the lone wolf, the vigilante. We romanticize violence and death. And we wonder why our children are dying.

We cannot continue to pretend that this is acceptable. We cannot continue to allow our children to be slaughtered in their schools, in their churches, in their communities. We cannot continue to be silent.

To the families who lost their loved ones in Minneapolis: I am sorry. I am sorry that your children were taken from you in such a horrific manner. I am sorry that our society failed to protect them. I am sorry that we have allowed this to happen again and again. Your grief is unimaginable, and yet it is shared by so many others across this nation. You are not alone.

To the shooter, Robin Westman: You were failed by a system that ignored your pain. You were failed by a society that glorifies violence and neglects mental health. You were failed by a culture that teaches you that your worth is tied to your ability to inflict harm. Your actions were unforgivable, but they were also a tragic reflection of the world we have created.

America, we are better than this. We must be. We cannot continue down this path of destruction. We must demand change. We must hold our leaders accountable. We must protect our children. We must end this nightmare.

Enough is enough.