Sandy Hook and Gun Control
I found this in my archive of posts long since deleted from public view. I wrote it shortly after the horrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary school. I don't hear much about gun control lately, more about immigration and holy wars. Isn't that interesting how priorities change?
This week started out tough. The killing of 20 young children on Friday is a slap in the face of everything we hold sacred and dear. Add to that a country divided on how to fix the problem of these types of senseless killings and to say I am emotionally drained would be the understatement f 2012. But while we are on the subject, I am going to add my 2 cents.
Let me start by telling you where I stand on guns. I am pro-gun ownership. I grew up in a family that owned guns. They were used for hunting and protection. We hunted deer, elk, pheasant, and we ate these things during the year. It was a rare moment when store bought meat made its way to my plate. The guns were kept in a safe, locked away, I did not have the combination. My father kept a handgun in his nightstand to protect the family. I was lectured many times over that the gun was not a toy and I was never to touch it. And I didn’t. I learned to shoot a rifle when I was 12. I had to take a gun safety class and get certified. My parent’s made me. When I was in my early 20’s, I dated an armored car driver. He carried a gun as part of his daily job. He taught me how to shoot a handgun at the shooting range. It was a fun date for us. I felt empowered and safe. Currently, there is a handgun in my dresser drawer. I feel that I have the right to hunt my own food (with proper licensing), the right to protect my home from harm and the right to feel empowered and safe.
Now let me tell you where I stand on killing another human being. Thought never crossed my mind, because I respect human life because my parents raised me with an awesome value system that said killing people was wrong, I am just not a people killer. I don’t defend the rights of people killers because they have none. (Where I stand on this issue in relationship to soldiers and war is a different blog post, so just leave it alone for now – k) But if I were a people killer let me tell you what would stop me from killing people. Nothing. Take a look at the world around you. Everything is a weapon. The can of hairspray sitting at my desk and the lighter in my pocket is a weapon. Windex and an insulin syringe is a weapon. I can go to Home Depot with the right set of instructions printed from Google and build a weapon. I will agree that a gun is an easy and effective way to commit mass murder. But so is poisonous gas, or a bomb, or a fire, all made from readily available mediums. The moral of this paragraph is this. It’s not the weapon that the killer is using. It’s the killer themselves that is the problem. People are the problem, people.
Do I think it should be harder to own a gun? Yes. I think there should be a 180 waiting period with extensive background checks and a yearly recertification process. Will this stop people from killing? No. Unless all guns are destroyed and no new guns manufactured, there will always be gun violence, but then again, there will always be knife violence, and box cutter violence and beating people senseless with my own two hands violence. Will it make it harder to act on a whim? I don’t have the answer to this, but I think so. If you are incapable of controlling your emotional processes (depression, anxiety, ADHD) without the help of medication, then you are not fit for gun ownership. Yes, I went there. Seems fair to me. I don’t have a solution to the problem, but what I do know is that outlawing guns is not the answer. I am not a mediator between good and bad, right and wrong, all I have are my thoughts and my feelings on the subject. But since I am talking about what I think, here it is:
I think people are despicable for perpetuating the media by staying glued to their televisions. Seriously people. Stop. Turn off the T.V. Go say hi to your neighbors. Play a game with your children. Live in the present, in the life you have, right now. Revel in the knowledge that you are here, breathing, living, and being.
That's all I got for now. I am sure that I could diatribe on the subject for ever and ever, but I will keep to the key points for now.
Lastly, I think this is my blog, my space, where I get to tell you what I think and if you don’t like it then why are you here?
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