By AACC
On May 6, a gunman armed with an assault rifle and a pistol killed 8 people at an outlet mall in Allen Texas, the 199th mass shooting in 2023. The youngest victim was three year old James Cho, the younger son of Kyu Song and Cindy Cho who were also killed; the only surviving member of their family is six year old William. Like the Cho’s, most of the victims were racialized minorities: Daniela and Sofia Mendoza, two Hispanic elementary school students; Aishwarya Thatikonda, an engineer who had emigrated from India; and Elio Cumana-Rivas who was working to support his family back in Venezuela. Christian LaCour, a security guard working at the mall, was also killed.
Words cannot express the pain that the victims’ families and close ones feel. We lament with weary souls and continue to pray for the victims’ families and communities near and far facing the grief of too many loved ones gone too soon. As Christians, we must be a community that responds first to these tragedies with lament, grief, and prayer. Like the Psalmist, we can pray and cry out “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint; heal me, Lord, for my bones are in agony. My soul is in deep anguish. How long, Lord, how long?” (Psalm 6:1-3)
But we must also pray that God moves citizens and elected officials alike to not hide behind “thoughts and prayers” but courageously pursue policies that reduce the scourge of gun violence in our communities.
We must be educated about gun laws in our local communities, encourage conversations about gun safety in our church spaces, and press our elected officials to pass common sense gun safety laws to make our communities safer.
A renewed civic commitment to engage the political process and advocate for policies and laws that promote gun safety is especially necessary in Asian-American communities. According to APIAVote, more than 3 in 4 Asian Americans polled in 2022 support stricter gun laws. But many Asian Americans and Asian American Christians are silent and absent in efforts to change the unacceptable status quo of our gun violence national nightmare.
The cost of silence and inaction are gun policies that do not reflect our preferences nor protect our communities. And so, now more than ever, we must as people of faith come together committed to intentional civic and political engagement, not because thoughts and prayers are enough, but because our prayers compel us to thoughtfully act and seek the common good for all made in the Imago Dei.