Just Say 'Gun Control,' Kelly Clarkson

Kelly Clarkson, the host of this year’s Billboard Awards, opened the ceremony by addressing the Friday massacre at Santa Fe High School.

“I’m so sick of ‘moment of silence.’ It’s not working. Like obviously,” she said, instead calling for a “moment of action, moment of change.”

“Why don’t we change what’s happening, because it’s horrible?” said Clarkson, whose teary, minute-and-30-second plea stayed in the realm of the nonspecific. She offered zero guidance to accompany her plea for change. She didn’t say the word “gun,” “control,” or “shoot,” or “stop shooting people with guns; we need stricter gun control.”

“And mamas and daddies should be able to send their kids to school, to church, to movie theaters to clubs. You should be able to live your life without that kind of fear. So we need to do better. We need to do better as a people. We’re failing our children, we’re failing our communities, we’re failing our families,” said Clarkson.

Indeed. We need to stop shooting people with guns. We need stricter gun control. We need to actually say something when we say things.