NO EXCUSES.
IT'S TIME TO BETTER REGULATE
SOME OF THESE GUNS
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The flag flies at half-staff at the Wyoming Valley West Middle School in Kingston, PA. When I attended the school in 1980-81, we didn't think about things like what happened last week in Connecticut. Times have changed.
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It's now been almost a week since the tragic and devastating shootings at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. It's been a week of numbing newscasts and heartbreaking headlines. There's been a lot to digest. Here are some of my thoughts:
I am 45 years old. And I have never held a gun in my life. Why? Because I am not a soldier, I am not a police officer and I don’t hunt. Therefore, I have never had any reason to hold a gun. I would like to go to my grave, hopefully quite a few years from now, being able to say that I never held a gun. At the same time, growing up in Pennsylvania, where kids now actually get the first day of hunting off from school, I have had many friends that enjoy hunting. Please let it be clear that nobody cares about that. Nobody wants to take their guns. As long as they are registered properly, and they keep them locked up at home in a very safe place away from their kids, nobody cares if somebody takes a rifle out a few times a year and goes hunting. I personally couldn’t shoot an innocent animal simply going about its day out in the woods, but in fairness to the hunters, most of them do eat what they hunt, and it would be hypocritical of me to condem them when I enjoy a good steak or cheeseburger as much as the next guy.
What irritates the hell of out me is when things like this happen in Connecticut, or Colorado, or Arizona, and people start talking about getting some better legislation and laws on gun control, and some of these pro-gun zealots get all up in arms. (No pun intended.) They start crying about how the government is going to take away their guns, and how much they need their guns, and how it is their “constitutional right to bear arms.”
Really?
You’re going to cite the constitution as the reason you have the right to own an automatic weapon that was probably designed for warfare?
Do they know that when the constitution was written 230 years ago, guns were carved out of wood and shot one round at a time? Do they know that when the constitution was written women could not vote, and that you could actually go to an auction somewhere and actually purchase another human being to work your farm or be your servant? Wake up, gun nuts. Things have changed. And for the most part, new laws and legislation usually make things better and safer for everyone. For the last time: Nobody wants to take away your hunting rifle. And if you’re as good at shooting that thing as you probably think you are, that should be plenty to make you feel safe in your home.
The President is only person in the country who has personally gone and met with the families of all of these victims in all of these towns and cities, and he is the only one who has hugged all of them and has seen the heartache in their eyes. And if he has promised them - when they have asked him, which you know they have - that he will do something about the regulation of handguns and automatic weapons, then we all better just step aside and let him do what he has to do.
And yes, I understand mental illness is also an issue here. But unfortunately, that is a part of the human consdition that dates back to the beginning of mankind. Some people, unfortunately, will always suffer from it. Always have. Always will. All we can do is try to help them as best we can. We can’t legislate them. But we can legislate the guns.
There. I vented. Now I will go back to tearing up every time I see a picture of one of those little kids and praying for their families.
What irritates the hell of out me is when things like this happen in Connecticut, or Colorado, or Arizona, and people start talking about getting some better legislation and laws on gun control, and some of these pro-gun zealots get all up in arms. (No pun intended.) They start crying about how the government is going to take away their guns, and how much they need their guns, and how it is their “constitutional right to bear arms.”
Really?
You’re going to cite the constitution as the reason you have the right to own an automatic weapon that was probably designed for warfare?
Do they know that when the constitution was written 230 years ago, guns were carved out of wood and shot one round at a time? Do they know that when the constitution was written women could not vote, and that you could actually go to an auction somewhere and actually purchase another human being to work your farm or be your servant? Wake up, gun nuts. Things have changed. And for the most part, new laws and legislation usually make things better and safer for everyone. For the last time: Nobody wants to take away your hunting rifle. And if you’re as good at shooting that thing as you probably think you are, that should be plenty to make you feel safe in your home.
The President is only person in the country who has personally gone and met with the families of all of these victims in all of these towns and cities, and he is the only one who has hugged all of them and has seen the heartache in their eyes. And if he has promised them - when they have asked him, which you know they have - that he will do something about the regulation of handguns and automatic weapons, then we all better just step aside and let him do what he has to do.
And yes, I understand mental illness is also an issue here. But unfortunately, that is a part of the human consdition that dates back to the beginning of mankind. Some people, unfortunately, will always suffer from it. Always have. Always will. All we can do is try to help them as best we can. We can’t legislate them. But we can legislate the guns.
There. I vented. Now I will go back to tearing up every time I see a picture of one of those little kids and praying for their families.
