Posts Tagged ‘gun control’

Have We Gotten The Message Yet?

Posted: December 16, 2012 in Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
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I open up my computer and what do I find? Two more stories about shootings or attempted shootings in the United States! Yes, I know, it’s unbelievable, right? The first happened in California in the parking lot of a mall (yes, another mall). A man apparently opened fire into the air and ground 50 shots before local police took him down. Thankfully no one was hurt. The second was a teenager in Oklahoma who was conspiring to shoot up and blow up his high school and was trying to get other kids in his school to help him. Thankfully he was caught before anything could happen.

But guess what? This all happened on Friday, December 14th, 2012! The same day as the Newtown massacre. Three separate shootings and attempted shootings, all in one bloody day! Am I the only one who’s getting the picture here? We’ve got a problem with guns, with people having machine guns, with people with obvious pyschological problems getting machine guns, and with people refusing to admit we have a problem and refusing to take care of it.

Now, I don’t believe God is trying to send us a message like Mike Huckabee does. For one thing, God usually sends a bona fide prophet who performs a few cool miracles before He does any sort of punishing, and usually that’s with a plague. But if He were to send a message, it would probably be something along the lines of, “You’ve got a problem with people using weapons to destroy the lives I’ve put on this Earth! Go and fix it now!” I think that’s a message we can all take to heart, right?

So I call on everyone reading this blog and living in America to contact your representative, your senator, your governor, hell, contact the President, just tell them they need to stop all this gun-toting craziness! This isn’t Rambo or The Terminator, where everything’s make-believe! It’s real-life, and there’s no Bruce Willis going to come swinging in and save us all! We have to do this ourselves, maybe by banning assault weapons in private homes or by changing confidentiality laws so that if a doctor/therapist fears a patient may commit a crime, they are obligated to report it.

We could also have special presentations in school on healthy ways to relieve yourself of stress and other problems, or assemblies to talk about mental illness and how to recognize the signs of it. Either one of these would be great strides to stopping gun violence. And like I always believe, a better education makes one less likely to commit a deadly crime, so if we fund education more and the Army less, it’d be a real help.

Thanks for reading, let’s get to work!

Oh, Now It’s Gotten Worse!

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Politics and Leadership, Reflections
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Yesterday I was quiet and remorseful, not my usual abrasive, combative self when it comes to gun issues. I felt that was what was needed for this tragedy, where a majority of the victims were children. They didn’t need someone to be angry and yelling on the Internet. What we needed was quiet reflection and prayer.

Not today, folks. Because let me tell you, I am pissed. Why, you ask? Well, here’s why: first, Mike Huckabee of FOX News said that the shooting in Newtown, Conneticut was the result of “systematically removing God” from the school system and that it wasn’t a surprise to him that the shooting occurred. First off Mr. Huckabee, authorities are now saying the shooter Adam Lanza probably suffered from a personality disorder. Personality disorders are the result of biology and genetics along with environmental, cultural, and social factors. Pointing to a lack of God in the public school system as the sole cause is counterproductive and just shows you’re trying to advance your evangelical/political point of view while using the death of children as a political tool. Unless you’re saying that God put the personality disorder in Lanza and/or told him to shoot up the school his mother worked at? Then you’re just evil, sir.

Also, there was a shooting at an Alabama hospital today. Let me repeat that: there was a shooting at an Alabama hospital today. Three people died. I know this’ll probably be eclipsed by the Newtown shooting, but I think the fact that three shootings in a week signals that we’re actually having problems and that guns play a large factor in it.

I mean, look at all the shootings that have happened in the United States this year alone:

  1. Canton, Ohio
  2. Aurora, Colorado
  3. The Sikh temple in Wisconsin
  4. The Empire State Building
  5. Texas A&M
  6. Chicago suburbs
  7. The Oregon Mall
  8. Newtown, Conneticut
  9. The Alabama Hospital

Are we starting to get the picture here? That’s nine shootings, one of them in my state! I had a friend who comes from Canton, she knew the victims! Are we still going to say that there’s no gun problem here in the USA? Are we going to say that no new legislation should be put forth? Are we going to say these are isolated incidents?

HELL NO!

And pardon my French, but I’m angry right now. So now, more than ever, we need to sit down and talk about this ongoing problem and fix what’s wrong with our nation without the usual political bull and NRA grandstanding! As much as you may hate to admit it, there’s something wrong with this nation, and it needs fixing.

So get to work Congress! Do something about this!

Nothing Can Be Done For Them

Posted: December 14, 2012 in Politics and Leadership, Reflections, Social Activism
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Nothing can be done for the 20 children at Sandy Hook Elemeentary School in Newtown, Conneticut.

They are dead, taken from this world too early by senseless violence. As President Obama said, “They had their entire lives ahead of them — birthdays, graduations, weddings, kids of their own”, and now they’ll never have them. We cannot imagine how their parents must feel, or how friends and loved ones must feel. This day, the flags are at half-staff for a damn good reason. These children are now lost, and their parents will never hold them in their arms again. Just thinking about it, I want to tear up and cry. Up until this point, I thought nothing could hurt me more than Aurora and Wisconsin, but I was so wrong, and I wish I didn’t have to find that out the hard way.

I wish there was something I could say that could make this all better. I wish I could erase the pain we all are feeling now because we lost these, bright, innocent young lives. I wish I could cast a spell and bring them back to us like in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where the only worry about bringing back the dead may come from some odd side effects. I can’t. I wish I could, but I can’t.

I only hope now people stop bitching about second amendment rights vs. gun control and see we really do have a serious problem with gun violence in our country. I don’t know if that problem stems from just overabundance of firearms or from damaged psyches or both. I do know that what happened is horrible, and I don’t want anything like it to happen again in my lifetime, in my country.

Aren’t we tired of arguing while families bury loved ones that won’t grow up? Can’t we just sit down and talk and work something out? Is that too much to ask for? Is it too much.

Nothing can be done for those kids. Plenty can be done for those still alive. Let’s remember that as we proceed this week, and keeps these poor children in our thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

We’re Having the Wrong Debates

Posted: August 29, 2012 in Politics and Leadership, Social Activism
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I’m reading the news online, and I see that at the Republican National Convention, the GOP has decided to make banning abortion and gay marriage part of its platforms. Now, anyone who knows me knows I have problems with the GOP, but I think we’re talking about the wrong sort of problems. Abortion is not causing a rise in crime, and gay marriage is not contributing to the number of pedophiles or murderers out there, despite conservative beliefs to the contrary.

No, we should not be having a debate about abortion, gay marriage, women’s rights, debates we’ve been having for years and have heard the same old arguments about, only to see more people accept most of those topics as something positive and that should be allowed by law. No, if you ask me, there’s a far more serious problem, and somehow it’s not getting any voice in this election season.

Aurora. The Madison Sikh Temple. The Empire State Building. Within two months, we had three major shootings that were talked about all over the news in America. Plus Texas A&M had it’s own little scare, though that only got about a day’s worth of news before people moved on. And earlier this week a kid got shot on the first day of school by another student. And over the years, we’ve seen tragic shootings: Columbine, Virginia Tech, stop me any time.

The point is, there’s a violence by gun epidemic in this nation, and it’s not being talked about. Now, I know people want guns to hunt with or use for sport. They want guns for self-defense in their homes. But I don’t think it’s necessary for ordinary citizens to carry guns outside the house, and on university campuses too–that’s what the police are for! I don’t think you should be able to buy a military-grade assault or sniper rifle in any gun shop or even some supermarkets unless there’s a zombie apocalypse happening in your neighborhood. And I don’t think people should go into gun shops and buy said weapons and nothing should be done to check if these consumers have criminal records or mental illness of any sort.

And yet nothing’s getting done. No talk. Maybe banning moviegoers from wearing masks in the theater, but I’d only worry that a mask might signal a murder if I’m watching a slasher film. Nope, nothing’s getting talked about and nothing’s getting done.

I’m urging the politicians in this election, please talk about reasonable gun control laws. Don’t let yourselves be silenced because overly-vocal opponents will shout that you’re trying to take away Second-Amendment rights. You should be doing something, because we’ve had three major shootings these past two months, the latest in a long line of horrible shootings. How many more before people realize that not talking about this problem won’t make it go away?

Please talk about it. For the sake of the victims, and for those who might be saved by reasonable gun control laws.

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