The mental health component of background checks needs to apply to the current gun owners I've seen on cable news this evening. They're running amok, one fellow vowing to "start killing people" if anybody tries to mess with his guns. And I also learned there will be a "Gun Appreciation Day" around the time we celebrate the birth of the prince of nonviolence himself, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jeeeeez, people. Timing? Really?
Rush was announcing "they're" going to do a "gun grab." I think he means the bad ole government is planning to confiscate your hunting rifle. Or the little number you carry in your handbag just in case there's someone with an assault weapon at the Piggly Wiggly. (I'm with the ever-astute Jon Stewart on the founding fathers and the second amendment: Everybody has the right to bear muskets.)
It's too close to bedtime to write about all the fear I saw masquerading as hate on the telly earlier. The NRA is hellbent to fight any and every effort to make our country safer, especially anything coming out of the White House. I hope the Administration won't hold back on taking giant steps in that direction. I think it's about to happen. The big steps. Or some kind of steps. Progress. Meanwhile, gun owners need to understand that the NRA represents gun manufacturers/sellers, not gun owners. There are reasonable gun owners who favor taking steps to make our children, our schools—all public places— SAFER. Come out, come out wherever you are, and let us hear from you. Please.
Here's a reasonable gun safety advocate and friend who's speaking up:
Reinstate Assault Weapons Ban
My brother’s family attended a children’s mass at their church
this past Christmas Eve. Toward the end of the service, unexpectedly, a
man walked from the back of the church up the center aisle toward the
altar. He was wearing a red suit and sporting a long, white beard. A
gasp went up from the crowded church, not so much the sound of joy or
surprise, but rather of consternation, especially from the adults.
Was
this person part of the program? Or was he an intruder come to do harm?
For a few uncomfortable, worrisome seconds, no one knew.
Such is
the world we now live in. There is no more feeling safe – not at our
jobs, at a shopping mall, a college campus, a nursing home, a movie
theater, a first grade classroom or a house of worship, where even the
arrival of a benevolent Santa Claus gives pause. Pro-gun advocates cite
many reasons for the carnage in Connecticut: violent video games, mental
health issues, lack of or absence of parental guidance. Each certainly
plays a part.
But let’s face it. Guns make killing easy – insanely easy. Pull the
trigger once and mow down a room full of first graders. Easy. There
is no reason whatsoever for semi-automatic weapons and high-capacity
magazines to be in the hands of civilians. None. These are incredibly
lethal weapons of war. They should be available only to the military.
Period. No exceptions.
But, the argument goes, there are already
over 300 million guns out there. Well, I say you have to start
somewhere. So let’s start by taking these weapons of mass destruction
out of the hands of the general public and giving mentally ill, angry or
just-plain evil persons the means to commit mass murder.
Because
of the obscene influence the NRA exerts over our “leaders,” there has
been virtually no dialogue at all regarding gun control – not after
Columbine, not after Lancaster, not after Virginia Tech, not after Fort
Hood, not after Tucson, not after Aurora, not after the other 55 mass
shootings that have taken place since 1982. It took the bullet-riddled
bodies of 20 dead children to at least start us talking again. At the
very least the Assault Weapons Ban which expired in 2004 should be
reinstated. It’s not much, but it’s a start.
The sad fact remains
that as long as we dwell on planet Earth we will always find ways of
harming one another. Let’s just please make it a little harder to do so.
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