The Reality of Chicago and Gun Control

Well, the wingnuts are at it again--pointing at Chicago and squealing that, see, gun control doesn't work!

Read this carefully, huh?  It's important.

Gun control (or the regulation of any dangerous thing) cannot work in a bubble.  You cannot regulate in one municipality without regulating in ALL.  Why?  Because if guns are illegal in, say, ILLINOIS, but legal just a few miles down the road in Indiana or Missouri, what's to stop folks from crossing that intangible political boundary and stocking up on weapons?

Nothing.  Nothing stops them, as is painfully clear.  Since there are no roadblocks, no checkpoints, no searches, folks wanting firearms in Chicago can just drive a little while, buy to their hearts' content, then drive back.  THAT is why gun control doesn't work in Chicago.  It's like when the drinking age varied from state to state--kids from Pennsylvania would drive to New York, kids from Utah would drive to Wyoming.  Stock up, then drive back across that political boundary with none the wiser.

Only a nation-wide plan can make a difference.  Nothing short of that will work because it can't--not unless we want checkpoints at our state borders, and I sure don't want that.

Read this story this morning.  Don't tell me we don't need to do something.  Don't.

Chicago Woman Looses Four Children to Gun Violence

I'm not talking a nation-wide "gun grab" (NOBODY is, despite what Wayne LaPierre would have you believe).  But if you're crazy, you're violent, you're a criminal, you have a history of violence or drug offenses?  I want to KNOW that, and I want you to be prevented from buying a gun.  Don't say we already have those laws--the states themselves admit those laws are half-assed and rarely enforced.  I want something stringent and strenuously enforced.  I want those ARs back off the street--the NRA and the right didn't whine when it was a republican calling for those things, so I'm left assuming it has more to do with WHO is President than with what he wants.  Shame.  I want high capacity clips gone--if you need 30 or 100 rounds to take out Bambi, YOU are the person who likely shouldn't be hunting.

I own guns.  I believe sane, law-abiding Americans have a right to that, provided those weapons are, as the Constitution says, regulated.  The Second Amendment does not guarantee that we all get to have as many of whatever weapons or ammo we want without regulation.  If that's how you're reading it, you're not reading it.

More later--the doggy calls.

My Heart is Sick for Connecticut

So, when the news hit this morning about a school shooting in Connecticut, the reports said that three adults had been killed, including the shooter.  As awful as this is going to sound, I breathed a sigh of relief.  Only three, and all adults, and one is the shooter--wow, that could have been SO much worse.  Isn't that awful, that we've come to a place where we consider that a "good" outcome?

When I signed on later to find that the numbers had changed dramatically?  Wrenchingly?  Devastatingly? 

Well, I cried.  Bawled.  My poor son tearing up next to me, grasping my hand, unsure what to do.

What to do?

I think of holiday gifts sitting under trees that will never be gleefully torn open, bitter reminders of a future blasted from this earth.  I think of delighted cries of excitement silenced and cookies for Santa never baked.  I think of parents who kissed their beautiful darlings this morning and never imagined some kid with guns would end them.

I think of 20 little hearts not beating.  20 sweet, perfect dreams gone. 

I'm not sure I can do this.  I keep crying. 

The Onion nailed it today when they posted this (beware of many swears).

How many times?  How many times does something like this have to happen before we stop pretending that it's a fluke, it's nothing to do with US, but rather some reflection of this nut or that "evil" person?  This is everything to do with us.  With the glorification of violence, with the constant barrage of anger and hatred and rudeness, with the ready access to murderous weapons.  It's not an isolated incident, it's not just one evil person, it's US. 

It's US! 

That kid who did this wasn't some demon crawled up from some imagined pit!  He was the child of well-educated, well-off parents who loved him, for goodness' sake!  And that guy in Aurora?  He wasn't Satan's imp, he was just a guy our society produced.  Our gun-toting, violence-embracing, shoot-em-up society where mega-lobbyists tell us that any attempt to be reasonable and intelligent in our laws about WHO GETS TO WALK AROUND WITH WEAPONS CREATED TO KILL OTHER HUMAN BEINGS is an "assault on our rights as Americans."

Spare me that.  Spare us all that.  Finally, please, just spare us.  We can have sane, reasonable, intelligent gun laws that still allow sane, reasonable, intelligent Americans to own guns.  And please, please don't throw out that "Oh, the Constitution!" crap.  We don't use 220+ year-old architectural guides to build modern bridges, we don't use 220+ year-old medical texts to guide modern surgeons, and we don't use 220+ year-old science books to guide our modern researchers.  So why on earth do we persist in pretending that the Second Amendment in any way relates meaningfully to our modern firearm issues?  In Revolutionary times, a particularly skilled shooter might be able to whip off FOUR ROUNDS PER MINUTE.

Four. 

At four rounds per minute, Mr. Adam Lanza might have managed to shoot one person.  Perhaps even one child.

That's 19 children who would have come home tonight.  19 children who would have been here to open presents and bake cookies for Santa.  19 children in their parents' warm embrace instead of cold coffins.

Stop pointing at our many "evil" gunmen and crying about how that has nothing to do with the gun laws argument.  It IS the argument.  Stop throwing your hands in the air and screaming about "THEM" as if they're somehow apart from US. 

Start looking around and realizing it IS us.  Our country, our laws, our culture of violence, our embracing of rudeness, our disdain for reason, our disregard for each other that makes this possible. 

Twenty perfect angels died today (and a slew of amazing, brave adults who tried to save them are also lost).  Twenty sparkling, wide-open futures ended.  Twenty bright, curious, seeking, joyous miracles of the universe stopped. 

And if that isn't enough to inspire us to turn this crazy-assed bus around and find a saner path, I don't know what is.

Oh, and before anyone says anything stupid like "this isn't the time to discuss gun control," tell me, when would be a BETTER time?  When bridges collapse, do we cry, "Not now, now isn't the time to discuss infrastructure!"  When buildings fall down in earthquakes, do we shake our heads and shout, "No, we can't talk about construction guidelines now!"  When children drown because of a downed fence around a pond, do we all scream, "NO!  Now isn't the time to talk about getting that fence fixed!"   Every time there is yet ANOTHER horrendous tragedy like today, certain factions scream that no, no, we can't talk about that now!   Now isn't the time!

And I sort of agree.  The time was at least 13 years ago.  But we dropped that ball, so NOW is the closest thing to a "good" time we have. 

I'm going to end this with a hope.  A hope that healing and comfort and some sense of peace somehow envelope those poor parents.   That they manage to find something here to hold on to.  That their families and community wrap them in love and kindness and understanding.  That we, as a nation, as a society, as a culture, somehow manage to make a difference so that no other parents have to suffer this unimaginable hurt.