When does the conversation begin?

During the election, I watched friends tear friends apart via social media - constantly espousing their own views, denying to hear the other side, and even claiming the right of "my page, so shut the hell up" to quash those who tried to have a reasoned debate.  I did not engage.  For the last 36 hours, I've seen the debate over treatment for mental health and over gun control both arise in almost as vehement a fashion.  I avoided it as long as I could... until a friend posed this question on Facebook:

If we didn't always say "now's not the time, we have time to fix it, let's mourn first," maybe we would have fixed the problem already (however it needs to be fixed), and THIS WOULDN'T HAVE HAPPENED. The blood is on all of our hands, because of our apathy and inaction. If now's not the time to talk, when is?

This time, I answered.  I did because she didn't come at it from a specific agenda, didn't say "Why can't we control guns" or "Why can't we fix health care"; acknowledged there could be many ways to fix it...  Thought I'd share:

Tomorrow. Tomorrow is the day the conversation begins.  Not the metaphorical tomorrow, but the actual day of Sunday, Dec. 16. It's not a magical date, it just gives people time.  A day to register the scope of this tragedy, to realize how it could have happened anywhere, even to them; and at the same time, to be 48 hours removed from the flurry of information assaulting them at every turn.  48 hours to decide where they really stand on the issue, and even what the issue really is.  

In my mind, it's tomorrow, while the pain is still fresh in the mind but it done slicing fresh wounds in most hearts; when the immediate reactions are still at hand, but the people having those reactions are no longer in the heat of the moment. When there's a groundswell for change and a reason that we can all get behind HAVING the discussion while respecting the community and giving them the equivalent of their moment of media silence (both online and traditional) by not pointing fingers beyond the lone shooter who did this, while they are still learning what happened to their loved ones, and the very names of the fallen.  That's when we have the conversation. Tomorrow, it begins.