Born Under the Brixton Sun
Let’s get something out of the way upfront here – I am not a super-leftist liberal, though I do tend to vote Democratic. Either way, what’s with the guns? Why are so many innocent people dying? I want to respect viewpoints, I want to respect the rights of hunters and their valid points about controlling animal populations, etc etc. I want to respect the opinions of conservatives, liberals and everything else left, right and in between. I try to understand the “guns don’t kill people, people kill people” argument, but you know what? Innocent people are dying. Repeatedly. That’s really where that argument fails miserably. How do we let that go on? How do we continue to let it happen?
I’m not going to take the easy way out and push the “what if it were YOUR brother/sister who got shot?” Because that’s just not the right way to approach it. That’s really just arguing for arguing’s sake. The real question is how do we STOP this. At some point we have to realize that the Bill of Rights was written in 1791. So just stop with that argument, ok? Stop. Mental illness? Part of the problem for sure. But people have been mentally ill…..forever. Why in the last 20 years is mental illness suddenly the huge scapegoat for gun supporters? Stop!
It’s easy to get guns.
What do you think would happen if we straight up outlawed guns? As in, NOBODY could have one. I think back in the ’90s some Senator proposed this or pushed something akin to it. I’m too lazy to search Google to find out. I don’t need Google, though, to tell you that of course it got nowhere. But would happen if it did? Would it have saved those kids in Connecticut? Don’t know. But I do feel like they would have had a better shot at being alive today if guns were outlawed. Unfortunately, this is not even realistic. Even if that happened, imagine the brushback – I venture to guess there would be assassinations of political figures who supported it.
This is a hard issue. Can someone tell me why people need these things in their lives, though? I don’t pretend to know all the facts, stats, numbers or figures about gun usage. I just know that more innocent people seem to be dying. These mass shootings were not happening 20, 30 years ago. What is it? Violent video games? Is it all the medication? Do you approve of the media, who appear to feel the need to splash shooters names, faces and personal history all over the TV? Doesn’t that glamorize it?
Whatever it is, I keep going back to my original questions – why do people need guns and why do innocent people have to die from them? And how do we stop it?