I may need to step back for a while. I am having a hard time dealing with how incredibly thoughtless some folks can be. How little mental energy they put into the things they then spit out of their mouths (or keyboards).
Just tangled with someone. We've tangled before. And I am determined to calm down and live to tangle another day. With him, even. Because he's not all stupid, but sometimes he really doesn't think before he talks.
Today, it was guns. He said, "There are already laws in place, but what's the point? People break them so there's no point in even passing them"
Okay, Z? There are also laws in place to prevent child molestation. People break them. There are laws about speeding and drinking before you drive and raping and murdering and committing armed robbery. Shall we ditch those laws, too? Shall we just throw our hands in the air and say, "Oooh, NO, screw it, away with the laws! People just break them, so what's the point?"
Of course not. That's just silly. If we just said "screw it!" and did away with laws that people break, we'd have no laws.
Then he said, "We have a RIGHT!" Oh, goodness. I've gone over this before, so I won't delve too deeply into the "dragging out a 225 year old document to determine laws concerning weapons UNDREAMED of when it was written" argument. It's not a holy tome, and Thomas Jefferson would puke at the idolatry. Besides, everyone seems to forget the "well-regulated" part of that Amendment.
After that? He gave me the "If the teachers had been armed!" argument. Spoken like a man who has no practical experience with firearms and watches way too many movies. ABC did a great piece on folks with Concealed Carry permits, and, no surprise, the people were absolutely unhelpful in a pinch. In fact, all they really would have managed in a crisis was to get themselves shot and kill the folks around them trying to run for safety. There's a reason cops train, not just in the beginning, but ongoing. Because life isn't a movie, that shooter isn't going to stand still for you while you dig your gun out, disentangle it from your shirt, then stand up, right in front of him, and struggle to take aim while your hands shake so badly you can barely grasp the gun. He's going to blow your face off before you even clear that holster. It's happened again and again. Now, I'm not arguing against CCP, but rather arguing for PROFICIENCY and TRAINING. We make people take driver's ed, for goodness' sake, but we let practically any idjit off the street carry a firearm.
Then? Well, then we slid into the tired, "It's not the time, stop politicizing the tragedy!" Seriously? Funny, when a plane falls out of the air, we're ALL over how to improve safety and prevent the next tragedy. When an overpass collapses, we have Congressional committees dedicated to discovering the cause and making sure it doesn't happen again. Tell me this, Z.--if 20 children managed to get their heads caught between the railings on their cribs and DIE today, would it be "too soon?" Would it be "politicizing" to call for investigation, regulation, improved safety, new laws? Would it?
Of course not. You'd be howling for it. Well, guess what? 298,000 (yes, that's two hundred and ninety-eight THOUSAND) people died from gunshots in the United States between 2000 and 2009. If that doesn't merit at LEAST as much attention and intervention as faulty cribs and bad brakes on Toyotas, I don't know what does.
And then? The kicker. He said, "Gun control criers on BOTH sides make me want to go out and buy a gun."
And there it is, you know? What do you say to that? What do you say when someone has, in effect, just said, "You make me want to shoot you?"
I asked him how on earth anyone could mistake the "No, don't examine, don't fix it, don't talk about it, AMERICA!" crowd with the "Don't let this happen again, what can we do, we must change, what have other countries done to fix this?" folks? How can you possibly confuse them?
We Americans are just going to let this slide. Again. The NRA will spend its big bucks to defeat any attempt to prevent this from happening again (even though most NRA MEMBERS support most recommended measures). And you know what? It's going to happen again.
And again.
I leave you with this. I'm going to do my best to back away from the issue on my blog. Too bad the parents of the victims can't walk away so easily.
Oh, and the Christmas lights kapoofed out front. Happened last year, too. Moisture gets in the outlet, I guess, and it trips the doohickey downstairs. But this time it won't stay on--each time we reset, it just trips again. Bummer, but doesn't feel all that important, really. Not right now.
Just tangled with someone. We've tangled before. And I am determined to calm down and live to tangle another day. With him, even. Because he's not all stupid, but sometimes he really doesn't think before he talks.
Today, it was guns. He said, "There are already laws in place, but what's the point? People break them so there's no point in even passing them"
Okay, Z? There are also laws in place to prevent child molestation. People break them. There are laws about speeding and drinking before you drive and raping and murdering and committing armed robbery. Shall we ditch those laws, too? Shall we just throw our hands in the air and say, "Oooh, NO, screw it, away with the laws! People just break them, so what's the point?"
Of course not. That's just silly. If we just said "screw it!" and did away with laws that people break, we'd have no laws.
Then he said, "We have a RIGHT!" Oh, goodness. I've gone over this before, so I won't delve too deeply into the "dragging out a 225 year old document to determine laws concerning weapons UNDREAMED of when it was written" argument. It's not a holy tome, and Thomas Jefferson would puke at the idolatry. Besides, everyone seems to forget the "well-regulated" part of that Amendment.
After that? He gave me the "If the teachers had been armed!" argument. Spoken like a man who has no practical experience with firearms and watches way too many movies. ABC did a great piece on folks with Concealed Carry permits, and, no surprise, the people were absolutely unhelpful in a pinch. In fact, all they really would have managed in a crisis was to get themselves shot and kill the folks around them trying to run for safety. There's a reason cops train, not just in the beginning, but ongoing. Because life isn't a movie, that shooter isn't going to stand still for you while you dig your gun out, disentangle it from your shirt, then stand up, right in front of him, and struggle to take aim while your hands shake so badly you can barely grasp the gun. He's going to blow your face off before you even clear that holster. It's happened again and again. Now, I'm not arguing against CCP, but rather arguing for PROFICIENCY and TRAINING. We make people take driver's ed, for goodness' sake, but we let practically any idjit off the street carry a firearm.
Then? Well, then we slid into the tired, "It's not the time, stop politicizing the tragedy!" Seriously? Funny, when a plane falls out of the air, we're ALL over how to improve safety and prevent the next tragedy. When an overpass collapses, we have Congressional committees dedicated to discovering the cause and making sure it doesn't happen again. Tell me this, Z.--if 20 children managed to get their heads caught between the railings on their cribs and DIE today, would it be "too soon?" Would it be "politicizing" to call for investigation, regulation, improved safety, new laws? Would it?
Of course not. You'd be howling for it. Well, guess what? 298,000 (yes, that's two hundred and ninety-eight THOUSAND) people died from gunshots in the United States between 2000 and 2009. If that doesn't merit at LEAST as much attention and intervention as faulty cribs and bad brakes on Toyotas, I don't know what does.
And then? The kicker. He said, "Gun control criers on BOTH sides make me want to go out and buy a gun."
And there it is, you know? What do you say to that? What do you say when someone has, in effect, just said, "You make me want to shoot you?"
I asked him how on earth anyone could mistake the "No, don't examine, don't fix it, don't talk about it, AMERICA!" crowd with the "Don't let this happen again, what can we do, we must change, what have other countries done to fix this?" folks? How can you possibly confuse them?
We Americans are just going to let this slide. Again. The NRA will spend its big bucks to defeat any attempt to prevent this from happening again (even though most NRA MEMBERS support most recommended measures). And you know what? It's going to happen again.
And again.
I leave you with this. I'm going to do my best to back away from the issue on my blog. Too bad the parents of the victims can't walk away so easily.
Oh, and the Christmas lights kapoofed out front. Happened last year, too. Moisture gets in the outlet, I guess, and it trips the doohickey downstairs. But this time it won't stay on--each time we reset, it just trips again. Bummer, but doesn't feel all that important, really. Not right now.
Yes we need laws. No we do not need more laws, except to maybe ban all guns that fire multiple rounds quickly. We do need better enforcement.
ReplyDeleteBut what enforcement would have prevented this? The guns were legal.
My mind goes toward better monitoring of the mental health of those who have access to guns (that means everyone who lives in the home) and the monitoring of ammunition purchases. Possibly making all guns with built-in locks where only the owner has the combination or it's fingerprint rigged. I don't know if this is national, but I know that here, we have to show ID to buy Robitussin and Sudafed, and our information goes into a tracking database so that, if our purchases suddenly spike, law enforcement is informed. We track sudafed but not ammunition--that astounds me. Plus, I would like to see a reestablishment (permanently) of the ban on all assault-type weapons (rapid fire) and a ban on high-capacity clips. I think that watching the ammo and looking at the mental health of family members might have prevented it. More than anything, I think finding someway to stop with the glorification of firearms and violence would do more than anything else. And THAT is going to take a lot of work. But, with 298,000 firearm deaths in this country between 2000 and 2009, I think it's worth fighting for. That's a horrifying number, especially considering we're supposed to be the "leaders of the civilized world." I don't think there's any one answer, but rather a combination of answers.
ReplyDeleteI was just over on your blog, seeing if you had a new post!