"Let’s stop playing silly political games. Show the carnage on the news. Show the American people the dead children": John Mellencamp issues powerful statement calling for gun control in America

John Mellencamp has issued a blunt, powerful statement calling for gun control in America. 

Posting on his social media channels, the 72-year-old singer/songwriter writes, "Excuse me for stating the obvious truth.  I do so out of love for this country and the pain of learning, once again, that children have been killed by gun violence.

"If we as a country want to find the collective will within ourselves to change our gun laws, let’s stop playing silly political games.  Show the carnage on the news.  Show the American people the dead children and others who have been struck down.  Show us what guns and bullets can do to the human body.

"The news media need to be brave enough to let Americans see what slaughtered children look like. Otherwise, I fear that too many perceive gun violence as an abstract; a story that’s repeated nearly every day to numbing effect.

"When I was a teenager, there was a war in Vietnam," Mellencamp continues. "In the beginning, no one paid much attention to this problem in a foreign land until the media shouldered the responsibility and showed America how our sons were being slaughtered.  Once those images were shown on TV, there was overwhelming demand for that  war to be ended immediately."

His statement concludes, "I say this as a father and a human being, with deep empathy for the parents whose children have had their lives ended so suddenly and so senselessly: Show America the carnage. I am not being callous, and I know it will be painful to see.  But, sad to say, I think it’s the only way to shock America out of its stupor."

The angry comments beneath Mellencamp's statement are an indication of just how badly the issue of gun control divides US citizens.

One comment reads, "When I see what guns can do to children it makes me want to buy another gun to protect children from such carnage."