And in the meantime, there’s “thoughts and prayers,” the timeworn cliche served up by the GOP.

Let’s take a look at that, particularly the ‘prayers’ part. But first, a little something I’ve been taught all my life:

God helps those who help themselves.

It’s the emptiest of empty gestures to offer prayers when you’re not willing to help, GOP. Help by introducing universal background checks. Help by introducing age limits. Help by introducing “red flag” measures. Maybe by banning assault rifles, your weasel semantics games be damned.

So by not helping, do you really expect the Almighty to help us? Nah. We haven’t got a prayer.