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I went over to Pinterest and searched for guns and I got the most appalling, detestable set of memes. Images suggesting the we all need to bad ass up and arm ourselves for god, country, family protection, safety, and intruders. One meme is more disgusting than the next. Pride of carry, no plan to hesitate, disposed to shoot first, presumption and conceit, cocky, primed to use them, unlikely to consider peaceful solutions, fearmongering, antigovernment and anti police, appealing to women, romanticizing vigilante-ism.
Someone somewhere is thinking about their right to carry a weapon. Today I'm thinking about Rebecka Ann Carnes, Lucas Fibel, Lucero Alcaraz, Quinn Glenn Cooper, Treven Tayler Anspach, Jason Dale Johnson, Sarena Dawn Moore, Kim Saltmarch Dietz, and Lawrence Levine.
Chris Mercer had a total of thirteen guns and tons of ammunition found in his Oregon apartment, all purchased legally, much of it online and untraceable.
- Have we become numb to the atrocity?
- Are we still appalled and shocked when kids are killed in their schools?
- What are we missing?
- Who is in charge here?
- Is the right to bear arms more important than the lives of innocent people?
- Is that a loss we are willing to bear?
- A cost we are willing to pay?
- Are you prepared to have teachers bearing arms in the classroom?
- What will it take?
If you are reading any news stories today, various news sources are reporting total numbers of mass shootings over the last years; different sources count in differing ways. Wherever you get your statistics, they are absolutely horrifying.
Gun Rights over Gun Control
Across our nation there is an increase in support for gun rights, less discretionary laws in more states, easy access to ammunition. To my sensibilities, this is the opposite of what makes sense. Who here has been convinced that black is white? How many of you have been persuaded to believe that what is up is down?
In our fear we have lost our ability to think logically about this crisis of ideology. Right now there is no possible way to know how many guns are active out there and no possible way to know who is carrying them. There is no possible way to track sales and transfer of guns and no possible way to know who is selling ammunition and to whom.
One point: guns have one purpose. To shoot. To kill.
Let's not pretend there is any other purpose for them.
One point: guns have one purpose. To shoot. To kill.
Let's not pretend there is any other purpose for them.
I went over to Pinterest and searched for guns and I got the most appalling, detestable set of memes. Images suggesting the we all need to bad ass up and arm ourselves for god, country, family protection, safety, and intruders. One meme is more disgusting than the next. Pride of carry, no plan to hesitate, disposed to shoot first, presumption and conceit, cocky, primed to use them, unlikely to consider peaceful solutions, fearmongering, antigovernment and anti police, appealing to women, romanticizing vigilante-ism.
The next thing you know innumerable guns are spread out in homes around the country and people are equating owning a weapon with being safe.
Gun Control
Are you convinced that only criminals will have guns if we put legislation on weapons? If so then you have been convinced of something completely untrue. I'm not suggesting we remove all guns. How I wish. No, I am a realist. I am suggesting that there be tighter controls over weapon and ammunition acquisition so that the Chris Mercers of the world cannot obtain stockpiles of attack weapons.
I'm not a debater and I'm not the brightest bulb in the barrel.
But I'm certain that something can be done, something obvious. Something perhaps not popular...but necessary.
My sincerest sympathy to the families who lost beloved people in today's massacre.
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I will never ever own a gun. When I was 7 years old, my house burned down. One of the first things my mother grabbed from the burning house were my brother's hunting rifles. After we moved to town, he never used them so they just sat in the house, unused. I stayed far away from them because guns scared me even then. But one day, my father brought one of those unused hunting rifles to my apartment and used it to shoot and kill my BIL. The last time that gun had been used was over 15 years before. My brother blames himself for not having gotten rid of them. He felt he should have because my father (and later my mother) was mentally unstable. My mother once made threats to kill herself and take us girls with. There were family fights where I was honestly afraid to stay in my house because I thought it would be the night he would snap. But heaven forbid if anyone had tried to take a gun from my dad, they'd have taken it from his cold, dead hands.
ReplyDeleteBest part? After the trial, my dad's brother got the guns. He was to sell them before leaving town so someone has the gun that was used to kill my BIL. Isn't that nice?
I try to stay out of the gun debate because I know a lot of my feelings about it are emotional but maybe they should be. Too many people are dying and many more are left forever traumatized by the violence. More than 12 years later and I STILL react to fire crackers.
Aaaaw, Janeen! Thank you for sharing your story. <3
ReplyDeleteYou have no need to stay out of the gun debate, your story, your voice is valuable to the discussion.