Can We Start Talking, Now, Please?

Are we willing to talk yet? Are we willing to have a discussion rather than just pointing the finger at the other side and saying, “It’s your fault.”? When will we, as a society, be ready to stand together and admit that something must be done. This sure as hell feels like that moment. But, so did Newtown, so did Aurora, so did Virginia Tech, so did Columbine, so did San Bernardino, so did Tucson, so did the Washington Navy Yard, so did Red Lake, so did Umpqua, so did Minneapolis, so did Oak Creek, and so did Binghamton.
          When people were dying in car accidents because they were getting thrown around like rag dolls; we passed laws requiring seat belts and putting children into car seats rather than milk crates. When hijackers took control of four airplanes and attacked the United States; we passed laws that made the airplane cockpit secure, restricted what you could bring on a plane, and how security checks are handled.
          We pass these laws as a society because of tragedies that we promised would never happen again. The only tragedy that has occurred multiple times but we have done nothing about is mass-shootings. Since President Obama took office in 2008, we have had 16 mass-shootings. That’s a two-digit number with a number one in front of a number six. That’s four shootings every year. One shooting every three months. WHY ARE WE DOING NOTHING? Explain that.
          Are we so messed up that we are fine with the status quo when it comes to multiple people dying at the hands of a single psychopath? Really? That’s fine with everyone? Not with me. Not even close.
          We all argue with each other on Facebook and call those who don’t agree with us idiots, or socialists, or ass holes and we have no meaningful dialogue. Since, you know, everyone is an ass hole who doesn’t understand what it means to have gun control, or understand what the second amendment says. Then we all send our prayers and wish it never happens again. Then, three months later, the same shit happens again. That. Is. Insanity.
          And don’t give me the bullshit line, “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Fan-freaking-tastic! You memorized a NRA talking point, good for you. But if you look at all the mass shootings you find a few common factors. The biggest being…think about it…YES! The gun! A gun was used in every mass shooting. It’s in the name! SHOOTING! I know you can kill with a knife, or a stick, a bat, an axe, or an olive fork. But assault weapons are the only thing that we have readily available to every citizen that can kill dozens of people in seconds. Something’s wrong.
          There is no reason for any civilian to have that type of weapon in their possession. “But I need my AR-15/Sig Sauer MCX/Assault weapon for…” and let me stop you there because I’ll answer all of your arguments:

1. Self-Defense – Nope! I don’t think you are going to be running around the mall with that long barrel strapped to your back. You will terrify more people than anyone and the cops will be on your ass in about 2 seconds. And what the hell are you going to do with that in your house? The chances that you shoot your family or commit suicide with that thing are way higher than you ever catching that bad guy you just hope and pray comes into your house so you can fire a couple rounds off because that’s been your wet dream for your entire life. And who are you to think that someone is coming into your house? You’re not important. Nobody wants your shit or to kill you. Get over the fact that you’re not popular and move on. Let the dream die.


2. Hunting – Wrong again! If you are doing any hunting with a semi-auto assault weapon with a 30-round clip you are a terrible shot and should not be hunting in the first place. Who the hell needs 30 rounds to take out a coyote? A prairie dog? A deer? Whatever you are hunting is running after the first shot you take anyway, and you lose a significant amount of accuracy if you just start popping off rounds from 100 yards away. Get a 7.08 mm, or 30.06, or 270-bolt action. One shot, one kill. This is hunting, not Call of Duty, dipshit.


3. For fun – Can’t argue this one, it’s fun to pop off a few rounds at a milk jug, or watermelon. But it does not justify you needing to purchase an assault rifle to target practice. A .22 is way better; they even have Olympic competitions with it. So buy a .22, go shoot some stuff, maybe qualify for the Olympics as an athlete, and shut your mouth.


4. Zombie Apocalypse – You’re an idiot. A baseball bat or axe is way more lethal than a gun. Mythbusters did it, look it up.


          The big one that people will throw out there is the Second Amendment. Fine, I’ll give you that one. The Second Amendment does say, “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.” I totally agree with this. Our founders put this amendment in our Constitution to ensure that a tyrannical government, like the one they were fighting, would not take over the United States.
          But, in the same respect, when we have a basic open door policy when it comes to anyone owning a gun without background checks, without knowing how to properly handle a firearm, who have never gone through a gun safety class, who see a conceal and carry class as an un-needed hurdle to carry a gun, and assault weapons that can be bought by deranged psychopaths, we need to realize that something needs to change.
          Yes, your right to bear arms is fine with me. We just need stricter regulations as to how those weapons are obtained. We can all agree that background checks are necessary. I hope we can anyways, seeing as how that would have stopped some of these mass shootings from happening. Since you need a background check to get credit, I think it would only make sense if we all had a background check if we were purchasing something that has the capability to take another life. You know, for safety. Will it take care of the entire problem? Nope, but it’s a better start than where we are now.
          We also need a wait time. I’m serious about this one. And if you are one of the millions of law-abiding citizens that is a responsible gun owner, this would not be a bad thing. It would be more like Christmas. You order your gun, and you can count the days off of your ammunition advent calendar until your new little darling arrives three-weeks later. It’s fun! And you can relive the giddiness you felt as a kid when you got to unwrap your Red Rider BB Gun with the compass in the stock! Memories!
          Finally, there needs to be a ban on assault style weapons. I know not every mass shooting used an AR-15, but AR-15 is used by the media to represent all assault rifles. Which may not be fair, but it's the way that the media has decided to go to describe most, if not all, mass shootings that use an assault rifle. Get over it, and know that no matter what name the media uses to describe the assault weapon used, whether it be AR-15, Sig Sauer MCX, Bushmaster ACR; I don't care about the semantics or description because it all means the same thing, that an assault rifle was used.
          Any weapon that can have an extended magazine and fire off that magazine in less than a minute is an assault rifle and now is gone. No questions. We’ve gone through too many of these shootings and now it’s time to admit we have a problem, and having these weapons readily available to anyone is a massive mistake that we all have to remedy.

          Albert Einstein defined insanity as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What we are doing right now is insane. We do everything the same when a mass shooting happens. We ask ourselves, “how could this happen.” The President gives the same speech about how a mass shooting occurred and we are all grieving for the ones that are lost and their families. The pundits argue if it was terrorism and then the debate turns to the second amendment because an assault rifle that can fire 45-rounds per minute in semi-auto mode, or be easily modified to become fully automatic, was used in the shooting.
          I’m tired of our insanity as a nation. When nothing changes, nothing changes. We cannot just wish for these things to go away and never happen. It has been proven, and shown, over and over again, that there are people in our society that believe it is okay to commit these vile acts but yet we give them the means to carry out those atrocities. We then cry foul when something like Orlando happens because that one person does not represent all gun owners. That’s true, but what happened in Orlando highlights, once again, what we are failing to do as a society; admitting there is a problem with assault weapons in our country, and doing something about it.
          We have to take action, or we will be seeing this again in three months. And if we are okay with that happening, we are more insane than I thought.

2 comments:

  1. I love this πŸ‘

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    ReplyDelete