Fuck you, I like guns.
I may have said this before, after some other school shooting, or a mass murder in a gay nightclub, or a massacre at a movie theater, but I'll say it again: I'm not anti-gun. I don't want to take your guns away--not exactly. But I do want to see something meaningful happen here. The majority of people in our government are more interested these days in restricting the voting rights of a large segment of our population than giving even the barest hint of increasing control on gun ownership in the slightest. Yes, that's a convoluted sentence; it's supposed to be. It matches the thinking of lawmakers who insist this is not the time to talk about this; of a president who first shifts blame to the community, then to law enforcement, and then manages to make it about himself.
Gun rights have long been seen as a Red vs. Blue, liberal vs. conservative, Republican vs. Democrat issue. It's time to stop thinking about it in party lines. It's time, really, to stop thinking about everything in party lines, because this, I fear, is where the true downfall of our country comes in, but maybe that's the basis for another post, or a stunning piece of fiction. It's time to start thinking about it as a human issue, because that's what it is.
After last week's post, I told myself I wasn't going to be political, and that I was going to write about writing again. Sorry. Maybe next week.
So much heartbreak. As a Canadian I don't feel qualified to comment on the politics, but I hope something can be done to prevent more of these horrific tragedies.
ReplyDeleteI read that on line and I agree with the writer. I don't feel gun control is political, though. It's a moral issue. Just because we have the right to "bear arms" doesn't mean we need an assault rifle. There really needs to be limits in the kinds of guns civilians can have and which civilians can have them.
ReplyDeleteIt's a tough and complicated issue that people feel passionately about on both sides. I'm mixed about how to handle it myself. I know people who want to ban all weapons while I know others who have that first "out of my cold, dead fingers" mentality. All I know is that guns ARE a problem--in the wrong hands. Determining whose are the wrong hands is where it gets dicey. There are so many things playing into this, and it's simplistic to think that doing only one thing will fix this. But we need to do something!
ReplyDelete-Thanks, Jemi. I hope so, too.
ReplyDelete-Stacy--there needs to be limits to something, that's for sure. Maybe it's assault rifles. Maybe it's who can get them. Maybe it's how they get them. We can't keep putting this off, though.
-Donna--it is indeed a complicated issue, and I understand the impulse to say "Wait until the raw emotions have eased, no good decisions are made in haste." But maybe this is exactly the time to start the conversation with the aim of actually getting to a reasonable solution. Thank you.
The sad thing is that we keep having these tragedies happen! How can we have a conversation when the emotions are always so raw. It's a crazy world anymore.
DeleteThen maybe I'm wrong--maybe we just need to have the conversation, period.
ReplyDelete