Victims or Killers. Those are the choices these days. You either pick up a gun and potentially become a killer or walk around with a target on your back. There is no place in the U.S. where you are safe. Not one place. If you think you are safe that's merely part of the delusion. And if you are walking around armed and feel safe, you are the delusion. Mass shootings, random shootings, drive-by shootings, intentional shootings or accidental shootings; every single day somewhere in the U.S. 321 people are shot. 111 of them will be killed. The annual number of people shot is an astounding and appalling 117,345*. To our impotent leaders and those who perpetuate the problem, clearly this is acceptable, and merely the price for you to have a gun in your hand. When you pick up a gun, you agree to the price and the delusion. "But I need to protect myself and my family", you think. Except that you haven't made anyone safe; you have only increased the risk of gun violence, exponentially, to everyone around you.
I was standing on the courthouse square of Cleburne, Texas last spring, after a friend's daughter was involved in a fender bender and we rushed to her aid as soon as she called. The other driver also had family or friends come to their aid as well. The other driver's person climbs out of his vehicle with a gun strapped to his side. I'm sure he felt safe, and maybe even felt like "the good guy." But I didn't know that person from a hole in the ground, and I most certainly did not feel safe in his presence. He was a stranger to me, an armed and potentially dangerous stranger. He was exercising his constitutional right to walk around armed, and in so doing, took away my unalienable right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No doubt, he didn't see himself as a threat, as that is part of the delusion. But one thing was abundantly clear to me: that man didn't give a damn about anyone around him. That makes him part of the problem. Now multiply that guy by millions who own guns and all share the delusion that they are safe, and what we have here is a nation of deluded people creating a massive and deadly problem.
And who pays for it? We all do. We pay with our lives, our freedoms, a collective sense of safety and security in public places, and with our friends and loved ones whose lives are stolen- deemed less valuable than the cost of the gun that killed them. It's just the price, right? The price of gun ownership.
And our children? This has become the leading cause of death for children and teens in the U.S.A. Whose job is it to protect the children? The adults? Where are they? Is it a teacher's responsibility to pull a weapon from their desk, prepared to shoot to kill? Who trains them and ensures that they are mentally prepared to act swiftly, and mentally strong enough to live with the consequences of those actions for the rest of their lives? The truth is, not everyone is mentally capable of killing, even in self-defense. So are we only to hire teachers that can meet this standard? Are we only to dine in restaurants where the waitresses are equally trained? Should we only hire cashiers at grocery stores who are ready to pull a weapon from under their counter prepared to start firing when an attack begins on the produce aisle? Are the rest of us going to be trained in duck and cover? Are the pastors and choir members at churches supposed to wear guns under their robes ready to duck behind the pulpit and pianist to start shooting it out with attackers while their congregation hits the floor between the pews? Should our manicurists be prepared to stop in the middle of a pedicure ready to start firing the instant they hear gunfire? What about our hospitals? The library? Are we all just supposed to hope/wait for our government-issued bulletproof protection, rather than admit that perhaps we should do something about the guns? I can't light up a cigarette in a public space because it's dangerous and unhealthy. Yet, some yahoo-wild-west-wannabe can walk around armed in public and it's legal.
I am mentally exhausted grieving for people I don't even know, but I grieve for them because they are my countrymen. I grieve because I know it's only sheer luck that it's not me or someone I love. I am angry and frustrated at the complete lack of leadership, decade after decade. And I am outraged that our children have to grow up in this insanity. I just want to hug them all and tell them I am so, so sorry this is their country.
I applaud the gun owners who realize they are part of the problem and turn their weapons in to be destroyed- THAT is true courage. THAT is true leadership...and that's what it will take to end the tyranny of guns in America: adults acting bigger than their fears by choosing to live a gun-free life.
Until then, good luck my fellow Americans, sincerely, good luck, and may God bless the U.S.A....because we sure as hell need it.
I don’t know how she does it, but our friend TokyoSand over at Political Charge always manages to find the best of the week’s political cartoons. Not a lot to laugh about these days, folks, but the ‘toons are still awesome and depict our lives with few or no words in a way that lengthy essays cannot do. Be sure to follow the link at the end to see the many more ‘toons she has chosen this week. …
