My daughter danced at Pulse nightclub in Orlando a number of times before a crazed gunman opened fire last year. She called each local friend as we waited for word on the victims, hoping each would just pick up, pick up, pick up. We waited for the list of the dead after it was over.

Then this week, my cousin’s daughter and husband flew to Las Vegas to celebrate their anniversary. In the middle of a country music concert, a crazed gunman opened fire on a crowd of people who were dancing. My cousin’s daughter lived, but her husband became a statistic – one of the 59 victims slaughtered in the worst mass killing in U.S. history. (So far but only so far.)

So dear lawmakers: Make it stop.

I don’t care how you do it. Suggest something. Ban assault weapons or don’t ban assault weapons. Allow people to open carry at Disneyland if you honestly think that will help. Just figure out what works and do it. We give up our right to privacy every time we log onto Facebook. We can surely give up another right to be safe within our own country.

This isn’t a gun issue; it’s a right-to-life issue. Start there. Say: “It’s wrong and stupid to keep having these mass murders. How can we stop them?” Then brainstorm.

There’s no such thing as a bad idea. The only horror is to, yet again, do nothing because our right as God-fearing U.S. citizens to own assault rifles is far more important than our right to be safe and secure at the park, at a dance, at a nightclub, at a wedding.

I live in Florida. We shuddered at the threat of Category 5 Hurricane Irma last month, prepared for the onslaught and cleaned up the mess. But I choose to live here. I opt for the occasional storm threat that I can see coming. I accept the fact that these acts of God cannot be changed.

But assault-weapon mass murders are not acts of God, they’re acts of Congress.

Someone, somewhere, somehow could have made it difficult for a crazed gunman to go into a gay nightclub near my home and start shooting. Someone, somewhere, somehow could have made it difficult for a crazed gunman to rent a room at the top of a Las Vegas hotel and start shooting.

Use some of that spy technology that stole my Social Security number at least twice and my credit card number six times. Facial recognition, security cameras, big data analytics, algorithms? We surely have something in our toolbox that can help.

Or enact sensible gun laws. If you need to trash 2^nd Amendment rights that clearly aren’t working as intended, then trash them. If you need to ban mass-destruction guns of war, then ban them. If you need to close the loophole that allows no-background-check purchases at gun shows – and you really do need to close that one – then close the loophole.

Or not. Just do something that cuts down on mass shootings.

After each tragedy, our lawmakers in Congress offer condolences then sit on their hands and wait for the next tragedy. When that next mass shooting inevitably happens, they issue news releases offering condolences again. And again. And again.

So dear lawmakers, make it stop. Just make it fucking stop.

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