When will the madness end?
I have to tell you, I started this post several times in the last few weeks but every time I started to write, another child had died from a gun shot. I sat in shock as I watched, how what I once thought were sound minded people, seemingly change from those that I used to know as people with even keeled judgement turn into ranting lunatics. All the while desperately reaching for straws in defense of the utterly indefensible, the death of a child by a gun.
I'm sure there are plenty of you that after reading my opening remarks, you have moved on. GOOD! I'm pretty sure there is no hope for you, your jagged belief or your inconceivable excuses to why children are dying at the hands of guns. The crowd that remains reading is at least interested in talking about solutions or ideas and that is who I'm addressing now. Lets be clear with each other, facts are facts and opinions are opinions. Both of which I will write about. My comments are not intended to offend but to spark conversation and hopefully cast aside rhetoric and half-truths.
By the numbers. Since around the attack on our nation that we call 9-11 we have lost around 400,000 people to gun violence in the US alone, most say that figure is low due to the blacklisting of the CDC by the NRA preventing the CDC from properly tracking gun deaths. In all of World War Two, which is considered to be bloodiest war of mankind, we lost around 400,000 Americans. The key difference is in war, we lost soldiers and with gun violence the victims ranged from the unborn in thier mothers womb to the weak elderly sparing nothing in between. All the time gun supporters like the NRA have been telling us what we really need is more guns.
So far, in this year alone the majority of gun deaths have been children or committed by children. Recently at the annual NRA convention, the leaders of the NRA told it's members on the big stage that we needed to store more guns in our children's rooms and make them easily accessible. During this parade of idiotic ideas a 5 year old in Kentucky shot and killed his 2 year old sister, a 13 year shot his sister while playing hide and seek in Florida, a Grandmother left a gun in a backpack that her 3 year old killed himself with, only feet away from her and finally an 8 year old at a gun show was allowed to fire an Uzi with his father behind him and a instructor present, lost control and shot himself in the head dying from the wound.
I know this is a lot of horrible news to take in but it is real and is a clear sign of the times. Prior to President Obama winning reelection the NRA Swore up and down "Obama's coming for yer guns" and the result was a frenzy of gun buying from September 2012 through January 2013 Did anybody happen to notice that buying more guns only made things worse. You don't have to be a statistician or a rocket scientist to figure this out.
Here's another interesting fact. Most guns used by criminals were stolen out of gun owners cars, homes or boats. The remainder were purchased at gun shows or online. So if you own a gun you have a 2 in 3 likely hood of having that gun stolen by a criminal and out of those most guns stolen are used in violent crimes, hence the stealing of the gun. This begs to ask the question of why not store the guns properly? The common answer is that most want (or should I say have the delusional belief) to get at their gun to protect themselves. It a lovely, romantic, Italian cowboys movie, John Wayne belief, however it is the farthest thing from the truth and the statistics bear that out! Bottom line is, if you own it they will steal it. There are few things worse than knowing that the gun you bought was used to kill a child. Do you really think the robber is not going to look in your night stand, the glove box, your purse, the shoe box in your closet?
By the way, have you ever bothered to even read the 2nd Amendment? It clearly reads: A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. Well I have a news flash for ya! We no longer need a Militia! We have a Police Dept that does that for us and they are well armed. Also, no one is coming to invade us and no tyranny is possible in America unless you consider the tyrannical views of the NRA. The pen shall always be mightier than the sword.
You can come to your own conclusions from what is happening all around you. I, for one have grown tired of seeing our children die from the plague of guns on our nation. I recently was a witness in a gun case and gladly helped the criminal enter our prison system for a period of no less than three years. Stand your ground was shot down (yes pun intended)! Luckily the victim's in this crime went physically unhurt. I have joined a group of people that for every dollar the NRA gives a candidate we will give that candidates opponent two dollars and for every volunteer the NRA provides we will provide 5 for the opponent. Bullying with guns is nothing more than cowardly domestic terrorism and it will be faced and beaten with a pen.
But Hey! What do I know? I'm just a plumber!
