WEE 1 TACTICAL FOR CHILDREN OF THE CORN

Yesterday I read an article that deeply disturbed me. Being deeply disturbed, terrified and angered by the news isn't anything new for most people, but in this case I wanted to dig a little deeper into the issue. Since so many people are gun owners in this country, I want to understand the mentality that surrounds gun ownership.  Why does a person feel the need to own a gun? Is it truly for protection? And if so, who are you being protected from? Should limits be put on how many guns a person can own? While the 2nd Amendment does give people the right to own a gun, it does nothing to set a standard for gun responsibility or accountability. Aren't those things equally important? We can't legally drive a car with having a license. We take a test as proof of our competence in order to get a license. If we own a vehicle we have to have insurance on that vehicle. We have to take certain precautions while driving like wearing a seatbelt. There are laws against texting while driving and driving while impaired because these activities are considered dangerous. 

First, I am not a gun owner. I am not against gun ownership but I am against gun violence. I believe we have far too many needless deaths in this country and worldwide due to guns. I don't pretend to have the solution to this deadly problem nor do I claim that there is a solution. But when I look at other industrialized countries in the world and we stand at the top of the list where gun violence is concerned, it leads me to believe that we have a serious problem, yet year after year we refuse to rationally address this issue. We continue to remain complacent while people around us die. This is what I don't understand. I don't understand what prevents people from sitting down like adults and talking about this problem.

Last year a new gun was introduced on the gun market aimed to appeal to children. I see absolutely no value for a gun like this, but maybe someone can and will step forward and educate me on why anyone would feel the need to buy their child a JR-15.  According to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's tweet the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas would have had a better outcome if the children had been armed. Seriously? Is that the solution? More guns? Especially in the hands of children? The thought of that makes me tremble. To me it sounds like "Children of the Corn" armed!!! Be careful what you wish for, Marjorie!

Representative Green tweeted:

"The kids at Uvalde needed JR-15s to defend themselves from the evil maniac that didn’t care about laws.

At least they could have defended themselves since no one else did, while their parents were held back by police..."

BANG! BANG! SHOOT! SHOOT!

WARNING:  WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ COMES DIRECTLY FROM THE IRRATIONAL BRAIN OF A BLEEDING HEART LIBERAL! 

It's been ages since I've written a blog post regarding religion or politics.  I've purposely done that because those issues tend to ruffle too many feathers and quite frankly, I haven't felt like reading a lot of other people's bitching and moaning lately.  What a selfish wench I am!  Although we all like to believe we're 100% correct regarding our political ideology and spiritual beliefs, I'm intelligent enough to know that rarely is one side completely right about anything. The exception to that rule is the dogma surrounding Mildredism. Mildred, after all, is right about everything! 

Today is the day I'm going to break my dry spell and jump back into the insanity of public opinion.  One issue I'd like to weigh in on is the increased gun violence in the United States. Without stepping on anyone's toes or Second Amendment rights, I really believe something concrete needs to be done to curb the violence.  Too many innocent people are being slaughtered daily.  I listen closely to all the rhetoric surrounding this hotbed issue, but all I really hear appears to be are confirmations of an irrational need to be heavily armed and a quite twisted relationship between weapons and their owners.  Instead of people focusing on a very real problem and having a rational discussion about it so a consensus can be reached, all I hear are people wailing about their guns being taken away from them.  To that I say BOO FUCKING HOO!

Perhaps when the Constitution was first written a need to be armed was a truly legitimate need, but it's an entirely different world now than it was then.  At that time people had to hunt to provide food to feed their families.  Veganism wasn't the going rage back then. People were meat and potato connoisseurs not bean sprout and tofu gurus.  Back then guns were a person's only defense in the savage environment they were settling. Today fewer people hunt to feed their families and those who do hunt, do it more for sport than for dietary need.  Those who chose to hunt and it is a choice because meat is readily available for sale at any store near where they live certainly can do so without doing it with a semi-automatic firearm.  Wouldn't hunting be more like hunting if it were done with bows instead of guns? Just a thought! 

Having a fully equipped arsenal of weapons seems a little bizarre to me and just a wee bit on the paranoid side.  Maybe I feel this way because I've never felt a need to own a gun.  As many times as I have attempted to discuss this issue no one has ever adequately explained to me any rational reasons why people have a need for weapons in this day and age.  What I generally get are loud tirades that come off sounding more like something an emotionally unstable person might rant. And oh boy, that's the kind of person I want armed and ready for anything! Today's savage environment doesn't include marauding bands of Native Americans or outlaws who rape, plunder and pillage.  The savage situations of today are school shootings and crimes of passion.  Could the answer be as simple as taking all weapons away except those used by law enforcement and the military? Perhaps if that was done, the violence might vanish.  Just a thought! 

So what's it going to take to turn the violence around?  Any thoughts on the subject? Other industrialized countries don't seem have the amount of gun violence we have here.  Are we not doing something right?  What's their formula for a relatively peaceful co-existence? Are we just a nation of spoiled children who want what we want when we want it regardless of the consequences of our actions?  Have people become incapable of compromise? Has our gun violence gotten so out of hand that it can't be fixed and why does the NRA seem to wield so much power? Who made them Grand Poobah of Gunslingers?  These are just some of the questions floating around in my bleeding heart liberal brain. 

* Repost from June 25, 2014

When Serenity Shatters

Growing up as a child of the 1960's something scared me more than the boogeyman, more than a werewolf, more than Frankenstein, more than Count Dracula and more than invading aliens from outer space all rolled into one huge, very real threat.  The Cold War between United States and Russia had escalated to a fever pitch. I remember having air raid drills during school hours in case of a nuclear attack.  Since Bangor was home to Dow Air Force base we, residents of Bangor, Maine were very aware that our small community would be just one of the many ground zero targets. 

Even as a small child I knew there was no bomb shelter secure enough that could save me and those people I loved. I had seen the films of nuclear bomb explosions. I watched the news! I heard what was said! Everything in the path of a bomb blast would violently evaporate in flames in just a split second. What I saw in the faces of the adults around me was that we really were on the eve of destruction and our fate rested in the hands of our elected leaders. The whole world held its breath while the nuclear scenario played itself out. 

Needless to say, many years later I'm able to look back and shake my head as I remember those turbulent days and now I wonder how today's children feel as they have "active shooter" drills in their schools.  My generation was able to move forward and graduate and become adults, yet today's youth feel the very real threat of gun violence everywhere around them. Where can they go today that hasn't been desecrated by guns? Is there any truly safe place these days? Do you feel like you're living in a country that's becoming more divisive and hate-filled every day? To what do you attribute the rise of gun violence and what can we do to change its trajectory? 

Like before I'm holding my breath and hoping for a favorable outcome, but to date our elected officials seem to be deaf and blind to what's happening to this country. I wonder just when will enough be enough. Who will be the last person killed before our elected officials do something to keep all people safer?