I am not a smoker, nor have I ever tried the newest fad of hipster cool, vaping. The President of the United States has done something I approve. He took a danger away from people, especially children, that may be killing them. The reported death of six people, suspiciously connected to vaping, spurred immediate outrage, thoughts, and prayers, but more importantly action. First of all, a simple or maybe not so simple explanation of vaping is “a substance diffused or suspended in the air which is originally a liquid or solid turned into a gaseous form.” The device used for this is a portable electronic device that converts the material into an inhaled gas. I know—a little murky, but the bottom line is the President moved quickly because lives were in danger.
No one cared about the intricacies of complicated definitions that are played out by the pro or anti vaper contingents. Unfortunately, hundreds of children dying from being shot every year cannot convert that same immediate outrage into action, only the thoughts, and prayers. Whenever I engage a gun owner about high powered weaponry, available to the average citizen, and dare use the words, “assault weapon” I am verbally assailed with the history of the rifle since the invention of the Winchester. A simple fact crossed Mr. Trump’s desk, people dying from a man-made device, and he did something. We have watched with mouths agape when hearing of our children being shot by the dozens at our public schools and the shouts of “do something” die in the echoes until the next mass murder.
Mr. Trump’s action on vaping is probably not a result of his expansive knowledge of the subject. It has been long known that Donald Trump is an aggressive anti-substance abuse advocate, reportedly having to do with his brother’s early death due to alcoholism, and he probably relates the two. I am in lockstep with the President on his stance against substance abuse. What I find hard to fathom is that he sat in the East Room of the White House and promised some of the surviving kids of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and their parents' substantive action.
I have installed on the header bar of my laptop a mass murder tracker and as of 9/12/2019 at 2:48 pm est. (because I cannot predict what may happen by the end of the day) 438 people, so far, have died in mass shootings this year. Yet when these statistics cross the President's desk, he places a call to Wayne Lapierre of the National Rifle Association for talking points and marching orders. Mr. Trump publicly attacked members of the Senate suggesting they are too cowardly to buck the NRA.
Well, Mr. President, there was a saying in my old neighborhood that fits you, “your slip is showing” and your own courage hangs in the balance. Not only did you back down from a promise to the kids who have the blood of their classmates in their minds forever, but you have reneged on a promise to the children of America to help save their lives. Assault rifles, high-capacity bullet magazines (unless you are in law enforcement) and weapons of mass destruction have no place on American streets, they all should go up in a vape of smoke.
Vote in 2020 for Change.