When it comes to violence in this country, we're far too reactionary, and to date, so far, our reactions have amounted to little more than hashtags and weird, sordid over-saturation of social media outcry. 

We've vacillated from pointing fingers at the government and each other, to dropping race cards, to carefully sliding them back into the deck and shuffling again, to blaming nobody in particular for the state of mental health care across the country, and back and forth again. 

We are only outraged after the fact, and even then, the outrage is short-sighted and short-lived. 

Let's put it simply: we absolutely need to enforce laws prohibiting the mentally and emotionally unstable from accessing guns. Any guns. All guns. 

Though New York's gun control laws are fairly strict, and the gun control laws within New York City are even stricter, they're not good enough. 

The Secure Ammunition and Firearms Enforcement Act of 2014 expanded background checks prior to purchasing a gun, banned assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, and imposed registration of inherited assault weapons, according to Newsmax.

Possession of a handgun within the city requires an NYC handgun license or a special permit from the police commissioner. 

Still, seven people were killed in five separate shooting incidents Saturday night and Sunday in Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Manhattan, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In Flatbush on Saturday evening, 36-year-old Julio Yasser was shot in the stomach and died in the hospital. Hours later in the Bronx, a man was killed and his girlfriend was injured as they exited an East Tremont Avenue supermarket.

24-year-old David Hooks was found unconscious with a gunshot wound to his lower bank in the Bronx on Sunday afternoon, and 34-year-old Kevin Brye was found along the rear walkway of a building in East Harlem on Saturday night.

Though overall crime remains at historically low levels in NYC, 244 people have been killed this year in homicides so far in 2015 in NYC.

Oh, and remember that this June was the safest June since 1993? We were suspect of those stats then, and even more so now while we consider that last year at this time, 228 people had died from homicides in NYC.

That's here in New York City alone. We haven't even addressed Chicago. 

In the meantime, innocent people keep dying, including Carey Gabay, an aide to Gov. Cuomo, who helped draft the SAFE Act. He died last week after a stray bullet caught him during the J'Ouvert festival preceding the West Indian American Day parade.

"Carey Gabay hasn't even been buried and we're in the midst of, in my district in Ingersoll, three horrific shootings," said Council member Laurie Cumbo. "It's really taking a toll on the community as a whole."

No one's been arrested in connection with any of these shootings.

"We need to be revolutionary with our approach," said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

What could revolutionary mean? 

cmhenry1987 We need major gun reform. Better yet just ban them! #guns #gunreform #gunreformnow #violence #America #gun #terror #peace

The essential question we have to ask ourselves, and quickly, is when does the moment of national introspection begin?  When will we question the flagrant abuse and disregard for the sanctity of our Second Amendment rights?

Of course we're aware of the Second Amendment and that our founding fathers demanded we maintain the right and means to protect ourselves from tyranny and oppression, both foreign and domestic, and we're aware of the thousands screaming for the preservation of this right.

 At what point do the raised voices of those losing their families and  communities to senseless gun violence actually matter? 

When do we give them the floor? When do we let them speak? When do we defend our human right to life with the same vigor we do for the possession of a tool whose fundamental function is in violation of such?

We don't have answers here. 

We are not concerned enough with the tired diatribes that trivialize any sensible understanding of our Constitutional Rights to even try and engage in that brand of dialogue. 

Nor are we so audacious to assume that government intervention and holistic regulation is the most logical approach to effecting real change (and such is often seen as the only true alternative to the current state of gun control).  

What we can do is engage in the necessary dialogue calmly and with reason; we can offer our sympathy, thoughts, and prayers to those who continue to stand witness to needless loss, and hope that we do more than simply accept the consequences of systematic indifference.

Check out 6 Reasons Why We Should Be Happy We Don’t Live in ‘The Warriors’ 1979 NYC.

[Feature Image Courtesy of Daily Caller]