We must quit lying about guns in America.
I’m going to stop right there. For just a minute, to clarify something. Normally, I write this column in the “we” — as I think we are all in this together.
I do believe we all have a part in this. But tonight, I am going to write in the “you.” And it is pointed directly at the people in America who continue to support, subsidize, and enable the murders of children in our schools. Big money is enabling this to happen. It has been long apparent, that the NRA has a stronghold on the legislation in this country.
They are the ones who continue to make up stories and excuses in support of our 2nd Amendment rights. It is NOT about hunting. It isn’t about defending your home. Does this involve mental health issues? Of course it does. But not a single one of the mass murders in the United States, or anywhere else as far as I know, were committed by pressure cookers, or hammers, or book ends. The deaths came at the muzzle of a gun. Sane people, and mentally ill people, both, have committed attacks with these guns. And. The assailants have been males. U.S. Citizens. Most of them white.
Guns killed 17 kids down in Florida today.
I wonder what that must feel like, for those families.
Did you hug your child as you sent them out their door, and on the way to school this morning? So did 17 sets of parents in Florida. This morning. But their kids aren’t coming home tonight.
I hope, and pray, with all my heart, that you are never saddled with the same reality, because you think you require a gun. Just in case you might need your gun to ward off the things that go bump in the night. Or perhaps, it is your absolute need to hunt animals. And, of course, simply because it is your red, white, and blue right. You know? I hope your kid comes home safe, time and time again.
But this has not been true for myriads of other parents, and families, and friends. Young lives are gone. And for what? This story will just disappear. Like Vegas. Like Sandy Hook. Like so many others.
I am sad tonight, once again.
I hope you are sad too.
Sad enough to make a change.
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“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.”
― Ernst F. Schumacher
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“Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd.”
― Bertrand Russell, Unpopular Essays
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“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”
― Albert Einstein
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