It’s required a little time for me to take in all the meaning of Saturday’s march for life by hundreds of young people and adults. The turnout all over the country was nothing short of astounding, a nationwide demand for an end to the “do nothing” approach to gun control in America. It was a demonstration by the kids who have been the targets of shooters telling us they are tired of the status quo, of bending to the will of the NRA and its lackeys in Congress, and they aren’t going to take it any more.

To which we can add only “amen.”

We know — because poll after poll tells us — that a great majority of Americans want sanity in our gun laws. They want an end to the efforts by opponents over the years to foster a deadly gun culture in this country, a culture that has led to the targeted murder of thousands of people, many of them school students.

More people die from gunshots than car accidents. And of course cars don’t kill people, people do. Just like guns don’t kill people, people do. well that is just the bullshit that’s no longer serviceable. We regulate automobiles in many ways – it’s way past time to do the same with guns.

And no, no one is seriously proposing to take people’s guns away. What the country is demanding is more background checks, an end to assault weapons sales. and increased efforts to locate and treat unstable people who have easy access to weapons.

And while we’re at it, let’s have Congress repeal laws that make it impossible to pursue lawsuits against gun sellers and manufacturers. No other industries have such absurd protections. They exist only because the NRA pushed its toadies in the Congress to enact those self-serving measures.

We have a lot of bad people in this country, a lot of people whose behavior has led to the deaths of many others. But let’s be honest about this: the actions of the NRA and their do-nothing jackals in Congress bear responsibility, too. They cannot be allowed to continue.

That’s what the young people in the march are telling us. It’s time to restore responsibility to our gun control laws, to make them meaningful, and to ensure that students can go to classes without the fear — the prospect? — of being murdered in their schools. The time is here. Heed the voices of the young and the caring. They are our heroes.