Only the Greens can turn the tide on mass shootings.

The Green Party of New York State is currently deliberating over a statement on gun control that was inspired by the back-to-back mass shootings in Buffalo, NY and Uvalde, TX, just two of the many gun massacres that have taken place in the United States this year.

The statement is forceful in its language and unapologetic in its prescriptions for how the public can finally get a handle on the seemingly irresolvable crisis of armed maniacs showing two or three times a year at schools, houses of worship and shopping centers to re-enact scenes from The Terminator while live-streaming their crimes to inspire the next wave of killers.

Herein lies the challenge to the typically mild-mannered Green Party: Are we prepared to begin a process to do what is necessary — what no other political party in this country is even pretending to do — and put an end to a cancer that has been growing in our society unchallenged for going on 25 years? Will we release this statement that commits our party to an agenda for gun control that says in unequivocal language “this far and no further”?

Ever since the 1999 Columbine Massacre, which began this new century’s avalanche of frequent, nihilistic mass shootings, every possible half measure has been attempted by our government to avoid the inevitable confrontation with the NRA and the weapons industry. State and Federal legislatures will sometimes (after only the most heinous crimes have caused a compliant public to stir in its slumber) pass a temporary weapons ban here, a restriction on a bump stock there, tighten this or that loophole… all to no avail. The next horror show is always just around the corner, and it never fails to mock any new laws that were passed to prevent it.

What the Green Party is challenged to do now is to embrace a full measure: To recognize the crisis, to know that it can be solved, and to pledge to be the ones to do it. It will not be easy to organize our party from the county chapters all the way up to the National Committee to bring this agenda into being, but there are those who are willing to make the effort. All that they require is just the smallest demonstration of backbone from the New York Greens.

Over the next few days, I, as the principle author of the statement that the Greens are deliberating, will answer some of the arguments I have heard in opposition to the agenda that the statement puts forth, as well as lay out the roadmap for its success.

Now is the time for the Green Party to decide if ending gun violence (a frequently stated Green goal) is truly within our hearts, because this much is certain: These massacres will not stop — ever — until someone puts their foot down.

Jason Yungbluth writes comic books, including one called Weapon Brown.

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