After celebrating Memorial Day — a day in which we honor those who gave their lives during America’s wars — it struck me that we are in the midst of yet another war. It is a war for the soul of our country, and it is being fought on our streets, in our schools, in the aisles of our grocery stores, and inside our houses of worship.

Guns are at the center of this war. As we mourn a father and son gunned down during Philadelphia’s bloody holiday weekend, or rage over the 19 children and two teachers shot dead in a school in Texas, or grieve the 10 Black people killed in a Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store, we spar to decide if our right to guns is more important than our right to live.

There are passionate arguments on both sides of the debate. Does the Second Amendment mean that every individual has the unlimited right to own guns, or does it mean that there should be state militias that are well-regulated by the government? Whatever the meaning, one thing is clear: We’re not using guns to kill America’s enemies. We’re using them to kill each other. Therefore, if we are to win this war, we must first recognize that guns are merely the weapons we’ve chosen. The enemy we’re fighting is systemic inequality.

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Photo: DUI By. Johnny Silvercloud

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