Thoughts on Responsibility


I feel like there is this totally conspicuous silence out there in the world. A big, yawing void of nothing happening and a big part of the silence stems from a single organization. 

If an organization has a huge platform they should use it, right? So, why hasn’t the NRA and their extensive education program thrown their weight and their voice behind things like supporting the existing, responsible gun laws to make sure that criminals can’t buy guns and to assure background checks are done? Why aren’t they riling up their 5 million members to feel that gun owners/buyers/sellers follow the law or chance losing their individual rights? Why aren’t they being more proactive instead of so defensive? It doesn’t make any sense to me. A far more effective way to protect the 2nd Amendment is to throw your money behind prosecuting and/or rehabilitating lawbreakers. There is no single solution to our out of control problem, but there are very impactful things that can be done to start to make a difference. But something needs to be done. And I can’t help but think the NRA would have 10 million members and their goddamned guns if they shifted their support to safety and responsibility and making and enforcing good laws. It takes a ton of money in the political arena to make laws, and it takes a crap ton of money to enact those laws on the streets. Come on NRA, let’s see your money there.

I work in a school. I had a dream the other night that we had an active shooter situation and I got shot in the leg trying to get us locked into a secure area. I shouldn’t be having those kinds of dreams. But far more importantly, kids should not be living through those situations or dying in those situations. Parents shouldn’t send their kids to school and never see them again. It is absolutely unimagineable why our country’s youth are considered disposable. If you are making excuses in your head right now how doing X won’t make a difference or doing Y won’t change anything, then you consider your gun more important than your child. Or my child. Or your niece. Or whatever child(ren) you have in your life. We don’t want to take away your right to bare arms. We want to preserve life! How can we make something actually happen?

***editing based on news I woke to this morning***

Dick's Sporting Goods have discontinued the sale of assault style rifles from their stores and banned the sale of guns to anyone under the age of 21. Now, before you argue that an angry 18 year old will just go somewhere else, let me say, "I KNOW!" But someone has to start the change and my hat's off to Dick's for doing something.

"We’re staunch supporters of the 2nd Amendment. I’m a gun owner myself," Stack said. "We’ve just decided that based on what’s happened with these guns, we don’t want to be a part of this story and we’ve eliminated these guns permanently."

Comments

  1. Beverly Stowe McClureMarch 2, 2018 at 12:58 PM

    Well said. It's a tough situation and I pray that level minds will get together and work out the best solution possible. I don't know what that is, but children/teens should not fear going to school. And teachers should not have to carry guns. That's when I would resign, if I were still teaching.

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