Dripping Springs, TX musician Israel Nash, has released a new song, “Sutherland,” via a Crowdraise campaign to benefit The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in honor of the Sutherland Springs, TX tragedy. Nash, a vocal supporter of responsible gun law reform, was deeply affected by the Texas shooting and wrote the new song in reflection of the latest American tragedy.
Israel Nash, about the campaign and song:
Sutherland Springs is a small town in Texas only 75 miles away, only a few country roads from my small town in Texas. We're not all that different really. We are both rural, close-knit communities, centered on agriculture and small business, where there are more cattle than people. We also loosely share a vast backyard of beautiful rolling landscape called the Hill Country. Even in name, Sutherland Springs isn't too different than my town of Dripping Springs, TX. So when tragedy struck my neighbors in the deadliest mass shooting in state history last week, it was truly close to home.
The day after the shooting, I wrote a song to cope with my feelings and perspective on the horror as it weighed heavy on me. It's not the first time I've written such a song in response to a mass shooting. I wrote a song after Representative Giffords and others were shot and killed in Arizona. I wrote one after Sandy Hook. And then one after San Bernardino. I wrote a song after a week of tragedies in Dallas, Baton Rouge, and Minneapolis. Sutherland was different though. It was in my backyard.
I’ve always felt pain, compassion, and even anger toward these vile acts and actors unique to the American experience, but this one being just a short distance away elicited a greater sense of fear within. A fear that this really could of been my town, to someone I knew, even me or unspeakably, my own family. These are the fears that disrupt the pursuit of our lives. Our daily activities - our schools, concerts, churches, our malls, movie theaters, and post offices, our airports, restaurants, and our streets.
2017 has easily been the deadliest year ever for American mass shootings with 112 deaths so far, not including those killed in Rancho Tehama, California just moments ago as I write this. Nor does it reflect the countless others killed this year by gun violence not classified as mass murder, such as traditional homicides, domestic disputes, suicides, and accidents. As American citizens, we are actually 25 times more likely to be shot and killed than those citizens of other developed countries. Yet one of our greatest promised unalienable rights is the pursuit of life itself which is in fact why governments were created in the first place, to simply protect the lives of its citizenry. Not only does our government have an obligation to fulfill their very function and purpose, their part of the social contract, they also represent an American people who now overwhelmingly support common-sense gun legislation that would reduce the frequency and impact of these tragedies.
About the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence:
For more than 40 years, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence has been the leading national voice in the prevention of gun violence with an unrivaled history of success. The Brady Bill, which was signed into law in 1993, remains the single most effective gun violence prevention policy in history, with Brady background checks blocking more than 3 million sales of guns to prohibited purchasers such as domestic abusers, convicted violent criminals, and people with dangerous mental illnesses. In the words of President Bill Clinton, “countless people are alive today” because of the work of Jim and Sarah Brady and the Brady Center.
For more information about The Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and their mission, please visit: https://www.bradycampaign.org
