Another shooting. Two dead, 11 injured. Hardly big enough to interest the media these days. We’re more used to numbers like 49, 58, and 17. This time it was people participating in a football video game tournament. People having fun on their free time. People having the right to feel safe. People having the right to be safe.
But there is no safety any more, and I’m angry. Because there are steps that can be taken, and few with the courage to take them.
This is not going to be a rehash of the horrible events at Pulse, Vegas, Parkland and elsewhere. One cannot imagine the terror, the pain, the ongoing emotional stress inflicted on these innocents, and I weep for the victims who fell and the ones who survived.
We hear how never again do we want a mass shooting. No one argues with that, but such shootings, terrible as they are, don’t begin to tell the entire story. Every single day, thousands and thousands of times a year, there are shootings that are just as devastating to those struck by them. They are so common we barely give them a glance in the short newspaper blurb devoted to them, if they appear at all. But I’m tired of them.
I’m tired of suicide by gun. A handy gun almost always is lethal when a person’s situation becomes so desperate that living seems no longer feasible. Too bad the distraught individual never has the opportunity to change his or her mind, as often happens when less effective methods such as overdoses are employed.
I’m tired of guns coming into play in domestic disputes. How many have lost their lives because there is a gun readily available when uncontrollable anger takes over?
I’m tired of kids finding guns lying around and killing themselves and others. And I’m tired of the adults that facilitate it.
I’m tired of disputes that used to be settled by fists, black eyes, and loosened teeth now ending in a bullet through the head.
And I’m tired of justifying it all by kowtowing to the Second Amendment.
Does the Second Amendment guarantee the right to own an antitank missile, a bazooka, a torpedo, a Tomahawk missile or a tactical nuclear weapon? I hope most would agree not. I think most would agree not.
That means there is a line, a point where what is allowed by the Second Amendment stops and should not be crossed. So, to argue the Amendment permits semiautomatic rifles such as AK-47s is spurious. What is up for debate about the Amendment is where the line is, and it is not carved in stone that these semiautomatic weapons fall on the allowed side of that line.
By the way, when someone vows they need an AK-47 because he’s a hunter, I have to wonder what kind of coward pits such a weapon against some poor and unsuspecting animal.
Where is common sense these days? Why isn’t there as much allegiance to facts as there is to a few words created more than 240 years ago at a time far different from now?
The facts are simple. There are more guns in our country than ever before. There are more deaths by guns in our country than ever before. It’s not a reach to believe there’s a correlation.
Here are some simple questions. Why is concern about guns a political litmus test? Why isn’t protection of our citizens the utmost priority of all our “leaders?” Why is there so much money available to pressure legislators to foster the gun culture? Why are legislators willing to be bought?
One more question. Why do we allow it?
But there is no safety any more, and I’m angry. Because there are steps that can be taken, and few with the courage to take them.
This is not going to be a rehash of the horrible events at Pulse, Vegas, Parkland and elsewhere. One cannot imagine the terror, the pain, the ongoing emotional stress inflicted on these innocents, and I weep for the victims who fell and the ones who survived.
We hear how never again do we want a mass shooting. No one argues with that, but such shootings, terrible as they are, don’t begin to tell the entire story. Every single day, thousands and thousands of times a year, there are shootings that are just as devastating to those struck by them. They are so common we barely give them a glance in the short newspaper blurb devoted to them, if they appear at all. But I’m tired of them.
I’m tired of suicide by gun. A handy gun almost always is lethal when a person’s situation becomes so desperate that living seems no longer feasible. Too bad the distraught individual never has the opportunity to change his or her mind, as often happens when less effective methods such as overdoses are employed.
I’m tired of guns coming into play in domestic disputes. How many have lost their lives because there is a gun readily available when uncontrollable anger takes over?
I’m tired of kids finding guns lying around and killing themselves and others. And I’m tired of the adults that facilitate it.
I’m tired of disputes that used to be settled by fists, black eyes, and loosened teeth now ending in a bullet through the head.
And I’m tired of justifying it all by kowtowing to the Second Amendment.
Does the Second Amendment guarantee the right to own an antitank missile, a bazooka, a torpedo, a Tomahawk missile or a tactical nuclear weapon? I hope most would agree not. I think most would agree not.
That means there is a line, a point where what is allowed by the Second Amendment stops and should not be crossed. So, to argue the Amendment permits semiautomatic rifles such as AK-47s is spurious. What is up for debate about the Amendment is where the line is, and it is not carved in stone that these semiautomatic weapons fall on the allowed side of that line.
By the way, when someone vows they need an AK-47 because he’s a hunter, I have to wonder what kind of coward pits such a weapon against some poor and unsuspecting animal.
Where is common sense these days? Why isn’t there as much allegiance to facts as there is to a few words created more than 240 years ago at a time far different from now?
The facts are simple. There are more guns in our country than ever before. There are more deaths by guns in our country than ever before. It’s not a reach to believe there’s a correlation.
Here are some simple questions. Why is concern about guns a political litmus test? Why isn’t protection of our citizens the utmost priority of all our “leaders?” Why is there so much money available to pressure legislators to foster the gun culture? Why are legislators willing to be bought?
One more question. Why do we allow it?
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