It is rare that I drill deep into these things publicly, beyond a retweet of someone who said it better than I could. But this is so strong on my mind that I have to speak up. In my lifetime Ive seen many mass shootings on the news and its kind of always goes to the same thing:
WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING!
ITS TOO SOON.
WE SHOULD.
MAYBE WE SHOULD...
(crickets)
Two weeks later: ANOTHER ONE! WE SHOULD DO SOMETHING! (repeat)
Let it be known, I am not against guns. I respect people who are respectable owners. I have close friends that are. They use them for personal protection for thier home, hunting, etc. I have zero, zero, ZERO problem with that.
What I do have a problem with is private citizens getting a hold of assault rifles, THAT ARE BUILT FOR ONE PURPOSE ONLY... (killing mass amounts of things in a short and quick amount of time, effectively). Without training or really NEED for such a thing. I know, it is really COOL and maybe even NEAT to have such a thing. You feel like a badass. Fine.
But I ask you to consider this:
Say, if I were to build a nuclear bomb in my home. If I was smart enough to do that... would local law enforcement let me keep it? I mean, I dont intend to use it. I just think its cool to have. Would they let me keep it? No. Of course not. Now, why wouldnt they let me keep it?
Simply this: They couldnt trust me to not use it. Say I have a really bad day. One of those days where you really wish for a zombie apocalypse to come and wipe us out. Whats to say I might not be tempted to push the shiny red button?
Im not saying people who own assault rifles feel this way. What I am saying is the item I made, in this case the nuclear bomb is TOO POWERFUL A WEAPON to just have floating out there. Say they do trust me... what if someone were to break in and steal it and then use it themselves? In short, the weapon itself... designed for ONE PURPOSE ONLY... is too powerful to be around untrustworthy people.
And I know I am untrustworthy. Some days when an asshole driver cuts me off, I am so angry at them that if I had a handgun next to me, Id drive up and shoot out their tires, fucking up their day. It gets that bad. Now you never know who is next to you in the traffic light. What if they hate your bumper sticker or the music you are playing?
All these things I mention above come to one simple statement: WE ARE ASSHOLES. We cannot take care of each other. We do not care about each other. Look at the message feeds on this current gun debate. We are calling each other names, saying how uneducated the other is, not trying to see the other persons viewpoint, etc etc. We are truly barely out of the woods on this planet. Barely out of the fucking woods. I see it in small gestures everyday on my way to work. People cut each other off in traffic. They have to be FIRST! Ive had people flip me off for going 80 in a 70, because I wasn't going fast enough for THEM. In cars we are anonymous. With an assault rifle or in another country flinging bombs, we are anonymous. We don't see the faces. We don't know who we are killing. Lesson is HUMANITY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT EACH OTHER! Fuck... we don't even care about ourselves half the time. We put chemicals into our bodies, etc.
These items, again, BUILT FOR ONE PURPOSE ONLY, are available for people to get. Mental health restrictions were rescinded last year in a law passed by the president. (dont get me started there) These nuclear bombs (so to speak) are available and those who want to inflict the most damage, will. In public places.. like clubs, theaters, churches, concerts, malls and yes... schools. Seems like we cannot go anywhere without the fear lingering.
But we must live our lives. We cannot hide or else the fear wins. I remember when the DARK KNIGHT RISES shooting happened and I planned to hit the theater the next day. I was scared to go. What if there were planned repeats? It seems silly now, but it was a scary time. I decided to still go see the movie but I sat toward the front doors. In case someone did come in, I would take a chance to jump at them or even use myself as a shield so maybe others could escape. Am I brave in that? No. I am just trying to live my life in the WHAT IF.
But my kids shouldnt. And when I think about the Florida events, I imagine burying my own kids and living the rest of my life in anger like those parents in Florida are now. Or at Sandy Hook. Or many other places where this goes on almost semi~daily... in AMERICA. America loves its trinkets dont they? And the entitlement we have as Americans to BE FIRST... to HAVE ANYTHING WE WANT, NOW NOW NOW... erodes our sanity and our complacency.
What amazes me too is a lot of the folks arguing PRO~GUN are also self proclaimed Christians. One church I read about is even raffling off an assault rifle because (and I am not telling a fib here), they say that WHEN JESUS COMES BACK HE WILL COME BACK WITH RIFLES! Yeah.They said it.
How about Isiah 2:4 ~
And
He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people; and
they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into
pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither
shall they learn war anymore.
Somehow that great scripture is forgotten among these folks.
This is a gun debate, not a party or political debate. This is a HUMAN issue. We cannot take care of each other. We are ALL mentally ill. And maybe we need to wake up and agree that we cant take care of each other. And while we try to work on ourselves and our society at large, maybe we can put away the worst of the worst for a while. Maybe we dont need these major types of assault weapons out there for us or others to get. While it may be COOL and NEAT to have a killing trinket, maybe we need to let this one go for the greater good and use common sense.
But we wont. This will happen again and again. Just like throughout human existence. Until it happens directly to you... then maybe you will understand. So I invite you to login to Facebook and Watch THIS FOOTAGE ... and imagine that is coming from your childs phone. Really imagine it. And maybe you will cry as hard and as frequent as I have in the last few days.
Back to my point about me building a nuclear bomb. No, I wouldn't be allowed to keep it. Because its too powerful a weapon to leave in the hands of me, a simple monkey. Maybe some other things BUILT FOR ONE PURPOSE ONLY fall under that category too. Think about it.
This is not the world I want to live in and its not the world I want for my boys. We gotta evolve. We gotta be better. Its mental health to choose some SANE CHOICES in what we will allow us monkeys to have.
~T
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