John Mellencamp Puts Out a Statement About Gun Violence

Earlier this week, one person was killed and 22 injured, including 11 children, at the parade in Kansas City on Wednesday for the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victory. This morning, John Mellencamp, who is a longtime outspoken critic of American gun violence, released a statement calling for the media to have the courage to show graphic depictions of gun violence, saying that doing so is “the only way to shock America out of its stupor.“

This is John Mellencamp’s statement in full:

“Excuse me for stating the obvious truth. I do so out of love for this country and the pain of learning, once again, that children have been killed by gun violence. If we as a country want to find the collective will within ourselves to change our gun laws, let’s stop playing silly political games. Show the carnage on the news. Show the American people the dead children and others who have been struck down. Show us what guns and bullets can do to the human body.

“The news media need to be brave enough to let Americans see what slaughtered children look like. Otherwise, I fear that too many perceive gun violence as an abstract; a story that’s repeated nearly every day to numbing effect. When I was a teenager, there was a war in Vietnam. In the beginning, no one paid much attention to this problem in a foreign land until the media shouldered the responsibility and showed America how our sons were being slaughtered. Once those images were shown on TV, there was overwhelming demand for that war to be ended immediately.

I say this as a father and a human being, with deep empathy for the parents whose children have had their lives ended so suddenly and so senselessly: Show America the carnage. I am not being callous, and I know it will be painful to see. But, sad to say, I think it’s the only way to shock America out of its stupor.”