Enough Is Enough

When a person runs someone over with a car, you don't blame the car, you blame the driver, right?  They were drunk/distracted/texting.  That's because a car isn't intended to be a weapon.  It gets you from Point A to Point B.  It has been misused if it kills someone.

A gun, though?  Yeah, that IS intended to be a weapon. 

Sure, it's used for target practice and skeet shooting.  But ultimately, it's meant to kill an animal/intruder/enemy/attacker.  Oh, and you can pick one up at Walmart or Kmart or any other Mart for as little as a 100 bucks -- along with pork chops and underpants.  Convenient. 

And insane!

You know what's hard to get?  Mental health counseling.  Restraining orders.  Help.

They also say now isn't the time to talk politics. Now is the time to grieve.

I beg to differ.

Of course all our hearts break over the senseless loss of ANY life, but now is EXACTLY the time to talk politics -- before this happens again.  I'm not naïve enough to think that repealing the 2nd Amendment will stop all gun violence.  It will stop law-abiding gun users, criminals will still do whatever they want because guess what?  They're criminals!  

But I do think the 2nd Amendment was written at a time when the "right to bear arms" meant defending yourself with a double-barrel shotgun from poachers stealing your land or grizzlies eating your kids and the nearest sheriff was hours away. 

This is not that time. 

Random gun violence is out of control, and our leaders have done nothing but wring their hands and stick their heads in the sand.  Think about it:  Colombine -- where 21 were wounded and 12 killed -- happened over 13 YEARS ago. What have we learned?  What have we fixed?

Nothing.

• 5 months ago, a man opened fire in a Colorado movie theater showing The Dark Knight -- 58 wounded, 12 killed
• 4 months ago, a man opened fire in a Wisconsin Sikh temple -- 4 wounded, 6 killed
• 3 DAYS AGO, a man opened fire in a crowded Oregon shopping mall -- 1 critically wounded, 2 killed
• And today, a man opened fire in a Connecticut elementary school -- 26 killed, 20 of them kids under the age of 10

Movie theaters?  Temples?  Malls?  Elementary schools?  The world's gone mad.

Massacres have become commonplace.  Enough is enough.

I honestly don't know how to solve this, but something has got to be done.  Quickly.  In 39 years, I have never signed a petition. 

I signed this one today.  Join me?

tags: politics