Did anyone else experience this scenario? On the day of the sootings at Sandy Hook I posted something on my personal Facebook page about how rapid fire rifles should be banned so this type of thing never happens again. I began seeings things from others like, "Crazy hippies trying to take away our rights!" Which was very similar to what I read during the election, btw. Then I saw, "Horrible people talking about gun control before the victims have even been buried!" I thought to myself, am I horrible? We've, all of us, waited through so many of these events. I have never, ever felt what I felt the day of the Sandy Hook shootings. Now is the time to talk about gun control. Now is the time to do something. No more later. It felt wrong not talking about it.
Then they said, "We have to control the mentally ill." As if any of us are free from some form of mental illness, trauma, dysfunction, depression—you name it. It felt like a diversion. Let's talk about the mentally ill and in the meantime we'll buy more guns and hopefully this whole thing will blow over.
Then it was, "Put God back in the schools." I can tell you from experience that many religious people can and do harm children—in the name of God. I saw my father dangling my infant step-brother by the ankles with repeated slaps to his bottom while the baby was turning blue because food had been forced in its mouth. I thought my step-brother was going to die that day and I'd have to watch because I was too young to do anything about it. My father thought God was telling him to defeat Satan. Believe me, putting God back in the schools is not a proper solution.
Then they said, "We'll arm the teachers, the principal, and we'll get armed guards." So that all of us can live in the threat of potential crossfire and never find a real solution.
What they haven't said: "Let's make a compromise and give up all these assault rifles with easily changeable clips. We don't need them to hunt. We don't need them for protection. We can still have our simple hunting rifles like Davey Crockett. Life is still going to be okay. We want a progressive and safe society, one that sends a message to the world that we can lead without violence. That we are confident, secure, and fully able to exist without these weapons in the hands of common citizens. We care about our children, and we don't ever want this type of massacre to happen again."
If they said this, it would be an act so unselfish the entire world would be in awe. We may not be the financial leader of the world anymore, but we can still be a leader in action. We can either hoard these terrible guns that are like leftovers from Vietnam because we have a sick, silent fear of being castrated OR we can make the courageous and unselfish decision to get them off the market.
It takes a brave man to know when they're wrong. Change is hard. Real hard. We all have something we have to compromise on. All of us.
