This is not okay.
I was a freshman in college when Columbine happened. I remember empathizing with both victims and shooters for that one… people pushed to their limits and unequipped to handle the rage of years of bullying. I think that might have been when I all but solidified my feelings on guns.
I think guns are cowardly weapons. Anyone with motor skills can lift a gun, pull the trigger and kill someone. Period. While yes, marksmen have tremendous skill that took years to hone… guns as a weapon are cowardly. They are an easy way out. You can take a life without thought at 800 ft/second without looking at that person’s face, without watching their life bleed away. There is no ownership in gun violence…only quick (pardon the expression) hair-trigger reaction.
School shootings. The Aurora tragedy. The Clackamas mall shootings earlier this very week. And now Newtown, Connecticut. An elementary school.
This is not okay.
We have a problem.
We–as a society, as a country, as goddamn human beings–have a problem when we’re more strict about 3 oz. bottles of shampoo than we are with lethal weapons that are killing children in their elementary school. How is this okay? How is it alright that kids are going to school with metal detectors, schools that are more secure than prisons? How is it okay? We’ve made these concessions (metal detectors, security passwords, police patrols in schools etc) to “keep our kids safe” but what we’re really doing is pandering to the shooters. We’re not doing anything about the problem, we’re just putting a condom on it and hoping it doesn’t break.
What the fuck is wrong with us?
This is a systemic problem. It’s not just about gun control. It’s also about mental health care, about our society’s priorities, corrupt government, a glutted gun lobby, a disgusting news cycle, a furor over losing rights that were to secure citizens the ability to have a weapon that took 15 minutes to load, aim and fire. There are so many problems all linked together, so many deformities and mutations that make shit like this possible.
But no….now is not the time to have that conversation. The NRA might get pissy and raise Charlton Heston’s mangled corpse as some sort of gun-toting lich. A politician might not get to buy that new Mercedes this year. Ratings might drop.
Fuck you. A parent has to go home right now and look at presents under a tree that won’t be unwrapped. A kindergartner has to learn how to process survivor’s guilt.
Where does it stop? When does it become socially acceptable to have this conversation and do something about these problems?
You have no idea how hard I will be hugging my daughter today.
