I'm a mother of two elementary school age children and my youngest is 6 years old and in 1st grade. The same age as many of the victims and that really hit home. It also hit home because while it is painful to hear of any school shootings when we hear about shootings in middle school and high school we know that many of the students try to react to the shooter. When a young child of 5, 6 or even 7 and 8 get shot at, they do not react the same way. All I could think of when I heard of the shooting and the age of the children that were murdered was that many of them were probably just standing there screaming and crying. Not knowing what to do and not running anywhere. They had absolutely no chance against a 20 year old with a gun. Those babies (because they were someone's babies) will never go home and those moms and dads will never be able to hold them again. This is not supposed to happen...EVER.
I have little by way of hope when it comes to the NRA, but I'll admit that I did allow myself to hope. Perhaps this time would be different. America was outraged. More outraged than I'd seen in recent times. Perhaps now they would do something...anything meaningful. To be an intelligent part of the discussion regarding gun control. While listening to a news broadcast a few days before the NRA made their statement, a commentator stated that he believed the NRA would really offer some useful input regarding gun control in America. The commentator said that with the outrage across the US it was obvious something was going to be done and that the NRA would want to be a part of whatever that legislation would be. To offer something serious to the American people could get their foot in the door to "steer" the legislation. Coming late to the table would leave them out in the cold. I should have known better.
I was appalled when I heard the broadcast in my car. Arm more people? More of the same? Isn't this always their solution to gun violence. Have everyone carry guns? Hell if they had their way, my priest would carry an assault weapon into mass to protect his "flock". So much for being a serious participant. And to suggest that our children are so incredibly important that the government should put aside their differences to pay for armed security in each and every school was equally appalling. We're talking about fiscal cliffs and how outrageous our deficit is and these yahoos stand up and suggest spending what would be an outrageous amount of money on something that would directly benefit them?!? The absolute gaul of the NRAs Mr. LaPierre.
I really hoped this time would be different, but within days of the shootings I started seeing nastiness posted on Facebook about the government trying to take away the guns of law-abiding citizens, and the President wanting to violate the 2nd amendment and how it's always been his plan. Dude, I've got news for you, President Obama did nothing to restrict weapons during his first term. It was something that chapped the hides of many a Democrat.
Let me start out by saying that while I consider myself a Democrat, I am a veteran of the United States Army. I served honorably for just shy of 10 years and had a brilliant career in that time. I left when I got pregnant with my second child because it was just too difficult to be dual military in a time of war. It wasn't fair to my children and it wasn't fair to my Soldiers. I made a choice and chose to leave a job I loved.
One of the things I loved about my job...I got to "blow shit up". I loved it. For the first few years of my career I was only able to "play" with my M16. When I was stationed in Hawaii I made sure that my unit knew that any time there was a range to qualify with a different weapon that I wanted to go. Quite literally someone ran into the motor pool once and told me that there was an M203 range going on and to grab my gear and go...and I ran!
It was fun. Firing all kinds of weapons. I loved the sulfury smell when a weapon discharged and I loved the smell of CLP when cleaning my weapon. It...was...fun. So, yes, I understand that people like to shoot at the range. I even get that people like to collect weapons. Great. What I don't get is why we shouldn't make sure that only sane, non-violent people get those weapons.
Why object to background checks? Why is it OK for the background checks to be skipped at many booths at gun shows? It doesn't make sense. People argue that making guns illegal won't keep them out of the hands of criminals, but that you'll be unarmed and unable to protect yourself and your family. Huh? People are seriously this gullible? Yes, the criminals will still be able to get guns, but no one wants to take them out of the hands of law-abiding citizens, so unless you're a violent lunatic you can have a gun! Additionally, laws with more severe penalties when a gun is used (and particularly an unregistered or stolen gun) would help put these people away longer, if not for good.
Assault rifles, and clips/magazines with more than 10 rounds...what?...did someone arm Bambi or something? Why do you need an assault rifle or a high capacity magazine? There is only one answer...to kill people. There is no other reason for such a weapon. None. Don't try to argue the point. You're an idiot if you think you can make any sense of it. Stocking up your bunker for when Big Brother comes to get you? Heck, those people are a part of the crazies in my book and shouldn't have weapons to begin with let alone assault rifles!
Recently on Facebook I had a dear friend post something that he considered a "good argument". I won't post the image on here because I wouldn't want anyone complaining that I stole their gorgeous (LOL) artwork, so I'll quote instead.
From "Rednecks International" (yes, that doesn't bode well...) it states, "Assault Vehicle - It's black, scary-looking and clearly designed to kill innocent people by enabling the driver to exceed the legal speed limit by over 100 mph. 32,367 people were killed on the roadways in 2011. Americans don't need 470 HP. Ban them."
I originally commented on their post with a simple, "Dumb argument". These cars aren't scary-looking. Many are quite sexy, and they certainly weren't designed to kill anyone. I'm sure the person that created this post thought that they were quite smart and was patting him/herself on the back, not realizing that they really sounded like a giant idiot to anyone with half a brain in their head. Then I decided to do something I never thought I'd do....I shared the photo on my timeline. I didn't share it because I agreed with it. I shared it because I thought there was an excellent point in it's message. One that the author no doubt didn't mean to make. This was my response:
"I saw this and the first thing I thought was 'we'll this is dumb'. Then I got to thinking. The argument to ban a car is dumb, but how about we treat guns like we do vehicles....
-You have to pass a test to prove that you know how to use/drive a car
-You have to register your car annually and pay a fee
-You even have to have a safety inspection annually in some states
-You are legally required to have insurance to operate the vehicle
-You go to jail and/or have your license revoked should you operate said vehicle while intoxicated, used in the commission of a crime, or are grossly negligent in its use (and I'm sure I'm forgetting many other ways you can have your license revoked for general stupidity), so do the same with guns!
Sure. Make a comparison between the two because I would LOVE to regulate weapons like we regulate cars. Oh, and cars are required to meet safety standards. Let's not forget that too. The manufacturers can't just stick anything they want on them.
So as it turns out, I like this incredibly dumb comparison."
So seriously...if you want to have numerous weapons why not pay a registration fee on them each and every year. Why not go through a course that teaches you how to use that weapon and where you can prove that you know how to not only shoot one, but properly clean one and store one safely as well as the legal ramifications of owning such a weapon? Think of the good uses we could put that revenue toward!
I'm not being sarcastic at all when I say this. I think it's a great idea. I wouldn't want someone behind the wheel of a car that didn't know how to drive, so why would I want someone with a firearm that doesn't know how to use it! In the military you have to know how to fire your weapon and to qualify with your assigned weapon annually. Soldiers wouldn't want to go down-range with someone that was never taught how to use their weapon so why the hell would you want to have your neighbors armed with weapons that they aren't capable of using safely?
Why shouldn't there be legislation that prohibits people that are crazy (I'll use the politically incorrect term here) from owning a gun? Why shouldn't there be legislation that prohibits people that have been convicted of violent crimes and/or crimes involving weapons from owning them? Why shouldn't there be legislation that revokes the license of anyone caught improperly using/handling/storing a weapon? I'm not saying that the police should be barging into homes checking on these things, but if they come across such improper storage/handling during their routine duties it should be dealt with.
Will banning assault rifles, high-capacity clips and enacting such legislation as I mentioned above stop all school/church/public shootings? No...but that doesn't mean that we don't try. That doesn't mean that these measures won't stop any of these shootings. That's part of the problem with legislation such as this. You don't stop it all, but you do stop some. You don't know about the crimes that are prevented so it's easy to assume that means it isn't preventing any, but that's just not the case. In the case of Sandy Hook it appears that the shooter got the weapons from his mother who legally owned them. It also appears that she was trying to have her son committed. Having said that (and feeling very bad for what I'm about to say since the poor woman was killed by her son), why was this young man able to get his hands on her weapons? Were they not stored properly? Did this man that she was trying to commit know how to get into the gun safe or where the key to the trigger locks were? Was there no gun safe?Were there no trigger locks?
There will be shootings, but we need to ensure that the people that legally own guns in this country are properly trained and vetted. This was a chance for the NRA to shine. Heck, the NRA could have led the way with such registrations, with training courses. They could have been a force for positive change and benefited from it as well as having the country benefit from it. Instead they blame everyone else but the people with the guns.
They blamed Hollywood and their violent movies. They blamed violent video games. They blamed not enough good guys having guns. Now I wouldn't want gun legislation like the UK has, but I would like to make a point that in the UK they have the same type of violent movies and video games and guns are not owned by the majority of citizens due to legislation and they have very little gun-related crimes. Did it get rid of all of the gun violence? Nope, but they don't have the same problems we have with school shootings. It kind of blows a giant hole in the NRA's theory of what causes such atrocities.
I will agree with one thing and that is that we need to have mental health care accessible to all Americans, but more...we need to remove the stigma of going to see a mental health care professional. Society views someone that sees a mental health professional as somehow being weak, but I think that the person that seeks help is, in fact, the strong one. Health care needs to cover mental health as well and it needs to be there for everyone.
So many people act like if you have gun control legislation that it begins the slippery slope to eventually having the government come for all your guns. This is something that is passed around easily to people that don't know how to think for themselves...the sort of people that think Fox News is actually unbiased (or news for that matter). They don't need to be taken seriously, because no amount of reasoning with them will ever get through. But will it with you? Do we really have to have children taken so cruel away from people before they act? Do you really think that your children will feel safe walking the halls of their school with armed guards at the doors? Is this America or is this some 3rd world country that we have to arm everyone to feel safe? That doesn't make me feel safer at all, and that's not the way our schools, hospitals and churches are supposed to be.
I worry about my children. Like you, I love them dearly. I lost my cousin before he turned 30. It was a car accident, but it made me realize that you never know when someone you love will be taken from you. It was a pretty big awakening for me and I was pregnant with my first child when it happened. I always tell my children that I love them when they wake up in the morning, when I say goodbye to them and when they go to sleep at night. I tell my husband and all my family members I love them because if I lose them, I want them to know. This was with me before Sandy Hook, but the horror of Sandy Hook did something else. It made me realize how helpless I am when my children are at school. I expect them to come home at the end of the day and into my arms so I can hug them, kiss them and tell them I love them. I've realized that as long as we sit on our backsides as a nation and do nothing about gun violence that someday I could get a call and be told that my babies aren't coming home to me. The very thought brings tears to my eyes. I think of Sandy Hook every day when I drop my children off at school and I pray that they come home to me that afternoon.
I too held my children tighter that night and offered prayers for the victims and their families, but frankly prayers and hugging my children won't fix the problem. All the prayers and hugging won't bring those 20 babies and 6 faculty members back. We can work to prevent this from happening to any of our children again and we must demand that groups such as the NRA and our politicians do what's right for America.
The 2nd Amendment keeps getting thrown around each time we talk about guns. Do you know what it says and do you know what America was like when it was written? "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." It's very easy to see where people could mistake that to mean that everyone has the right to possess a gun, but allow me to point out that when the Bill of Rights was written they were using weapons that took quite a long time to load. There were no automatic weapons let alone semi-automatic weapons. It took a long time to fire rounds.
Allow me to introduce you to another part of the Constitution...the Preamble where (among other things) it states, "....establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty..." We need to establish justice and ensure that these heinous crimes are stopped. Only then can we provide for the defense of our citizens and promote their general welfare. By protecting them we secure their liberty...not the liberty of people wishing to create terror in our streets and in our classrooms...on our campuses, in our churches or in our homes. The Constitution was written for us all. Not just for a small group of people and we failed to protect the welfare of those children and many before them.
I will leave you with a couple thoughts. I've heard it said that people can kill without guns. They can build bombs, use knives or even their own hands. True. My answer to that is that you don't hear of mass stabbings or stranglings. As for bombs...well, they can be used and have been, but how many bombings do we have? The fact is creating a bomb isn't as easy as obtaining and using a gun, and if someone is going to try to perform such horrible acts it should be more difficult for them. Many of them wouldn't go through the effort of trying to make a bomb. Some would. Most wouldn't. It's just too much effort.
We are parents. We need to protect our families. It's about time laws were passed to do just that. "Guns don't kill people. People kill people." Well, I'd have to agree with that. No gun sitting in a safe ever went off of its own accord, but I'd like to offer this....
Guns don't kill people...PEOPLE with GUNS kill PEOPLE.
