I'm weary. It happens too much. I'm not going to write much because so many others have. So many think there are easy solutions. When something like this happens the so-called experts come out of the woodwork. Ban guns! Fund more mental health care! Get rid of "assault rifles". Open more institutions. The NRA is responsible. Ban high capacity magazines. Parents have failed their children and are not fulfilling their parental responsibilities. Trumps fault. Obama's fault. Bush's fault. Ban bump stops. Get rid of concealed carry. That creates a violent society. Baby boomers have created a lax society so what do you expect? Teachers are given no respect. Violent TV and movies have created a violent society. Death means nothing to some of these kids. Ban violent TV. Kids are allowed to run free. Prosecute parents for the sins of the children. Ban violent video games. Ban video games. Social media is at fault. Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and all the others have fomented the problem. Ban them all. Anyone can buy a gun. Ban gun stores. Ban gun shows. Create a gun turn in program. Ban handguns. Tobacco is the country's biggest killer. Ban that. Mental illness is a national tragedy. If you see something, say something. If you don't, it's your fault. Climate change is going to kill millions so we need to focus more on that. It's Congress' fault. Those lowlife's can't do anything. Vote them all out. Enact term limits. It's the FBI's fault. They know who the nuts are and won't do anything. Give more power and money to localities to attack the problem. Toughen the requirements to buy a gun, even though they are already tough. Create a national gun registry, even though there already is one. Abortion kills far more people than guns, so don't talk about guns until you talk about abortion. Same with drunk driving. Put our energies into stopping people from driving while drunk. Turn to God for solutions. Forget appealing to God. Seek logical solutions. This doesn't happen in other countries. Become like Australia, Norway, Singapore, Japan, etc, etc, etc. Arm teachers. Put an armed guard in every school. Lock down every school. Give teachers concealed carry ability. Schools need to be free and open. Put up signs creating a "gun-free zone". Have a memorial service and send "thoughts and prayers". Deluge the site with flowers and candles to show we care. Have politicians offer condolences. Blah, blah, blah.
Meanwhile, 17 families in Florida will never be the same. 17 young lives snuffed out. I can't even imagine. And the kids, teachers, first responders, government representatives, and really everyone in Parkland, FL will never be the same. And that's true for Columbine, Sandy Hook, Sutherland, and so many others.
It's a difficult subject to even discuss because of two things. Passion and misinformation. The statistics are powerful, convincing and mindboggling on both sides. The memes resonate. Each side doesn't even want to listen to the other. After the loss of life, and especially young life, people want to "do something". But read or listen to people discussing this issue. There are very few in the middle. Most 2nd Amendment zealots won't even discuss further controls. They say we've already gone too far. And their arguments have some validity. There are very few gun ban advocates who will even discuss a compromise. They want them all gone. But frequently many of those people have no idea what they are talking about when it comes to guns. There's a pretty good article on this issue here. And once again, it's from a position of passion, from caring, from pain. And their arguments have some validity.
So we seem to remain in a weird sort of purgatory where nothing gets done and we are doomed to suffer these horrible incidents over and over and over... And not only is it a national tragedy, but it's a national embarrassment.
So what do we do? I wish I knew...
No comments:
Post a Comment