In light of recent events in Connecticut involving the senseless murder of 27 people including 20 children aged 6 and 7 at Sandy Hook Elementary, I really got thinking about the issue of guns and gun control. Guns serve one purpose: killing. Now since I hold as close to the precept of non-harming as I can (I don't even kill spiders), guns have no place in my life. One could argue that they only use guns for target practice. What are you practicing FOR? There's plenty of other things you could be doing to hone your hand-eye coordination. I feel like a bit of a hypocrite in saying that because I've always been attracted to archery. But you can't walk into a theatre or a school with a long bow and a quiver of arrows (or walk down the street for that matter) without it being noticed. "Man kills 8 in downtown mall with a bow and arrow before turning the bow on himself." You don't hear that. And hiding a strung bow in your pocket or pant leg doesn't really work. It's just far too easy to access guns and use them on people, hidden or not. In a society like America where the gun culture is so ingrained that owning a hand gun is no big deal, you know bad things will, and have, happened. Not to mention automatic weapons. People can actually buy them!! The easier it is to access something, the more likely it is to be used. That just makes sense. So take this scenario. Two people in a heated argument. Regular people. Things get really ugly. In situation A, there are guns close at hand. In situation B, there are no guns. Which one do you think will end worse? Gunshot, or black eye? Hmmmmm There's a big difference between having a hand gun on your hip or a rifle locked in a cabinet at home. In most cases, you would hope that separating yourself from the situation to go get a gun would allow you too cool off and rethink what you are doing. In pre-meditated cases, that changes but in everyday life? Come on. I can't imagine living somewhere where people walk around with guns out in the open, or in their purse or whatever. I just can't. It's frightening to think about. I've seen stats (on Facebook. Grain of salt, I know.) that show that in countries such as Canada with no gun culture and strict gun control legislation, hand gun fatalities per year are less than 100. In America, over 10,000. Even if you look at it per capita, the math still doesn't add up. America has roughly 10 times the population as Canada. So one could likely expect 10 times the number of hand gun fatalities, or about 1000. But no, it's 10 times THAT. This is off side people. Something has to change! I'm not advocating a complete ban on firearms, or even a ban on civilians owning guns of any kind. Putting all the firepower in the hands of authority is a recipe for disaster. But hey, an entire world without guns would be pretty frickin' sweet.
Here's another argument. "I need it for protection." From who? OTHER PEOPLE WITH GUNS. So take the guns away from the everyday man, and the kid with mental illness, or the guy who just can't fucking take it anymore, the need for and method of protection changes drastically. You can't run away from a bullet. There will always be criminals and people with twisted souls who will find a way to get what they need. You can't change that but you can change the prevalence of instruments of death in the general population. Peace and love brothers and sisters. People shouldn't need to live in fear. It's sad. It's really sad. This Sandy Hook shooting is just as much about mental health as it is gun control. The problem is, mental health is much harder to spot than a gun. Mental health is much easier to hide as well. I've struggled with mental health issues before and to all but the very closest to me, nothing would have appeared amiss. It seldom does. And as a society we need to get better about openly discussing mental health and depression. I think that's the biggest step that has to be made.
Then today I read about this radical Baptist church from Topeka that plans to picket outside Sandy Hook Elementary with the message that the shooter WAS ACTING OUT GOD'S WILL. They're basically saying that this was God working through the shooter to exact his vengeance on the shameful sinners that support gay marriage. ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND?!?!?! OBVIOUSLY THEY ARE!!!! They were children!!! Most of them probably don't even know what gay means!! WHAT KIND OF GOD KILLS HIS OWN CHILDREN TO PROVE A POINT ABOUT WHO YOU CAN LOVE???? ABSOLUTELY BAT SHIT INSANE LOGIC!!! That comes nowhere close to even making a lick of sense. It's hateful nonsense. It's disgusting. It's that kind of attitude, that belief, of justifying the murder of CHILDREN over gay marriage that is more appalling, more saddening that the shooting itself! The shooter was not of sound mind. These people apparently are! At least from a diagnostic perspective. I tell you what, non-harming be damned, if I was one of the parents of those poor children, I would personally beat the very life out of anyone who justified those kilings with my bare hands. That sort of speech, that kind of hate, is unforgivable. It would actually be doing those bigot assholes a favour. By mashing their disgusting faces into a pile of pulp until their life drains away would be saving them from a lifetime of generating bad karma. (I'll have to do some serious karma cleansing for even saying that.) But that sort of behaviour is not acceptable. They should be jailed just the same as anyone else spreading the message of hate. It's just so very very wrong. I don't care what religion you follow, Baptist, Catholic, Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, or whatever, it doesn't matter. KILLING IN THE NAME OF GOD DOES NOT MAKE SENSE. THOU SHALT NOT KILL. PLAIN AND SIMPLE. NO RIGHTEOUS GOD WOULD WORK THAT WAY.
And I am surprised I haven't heard more about the conspiracy theories purporting that this shooting (and the Batman shooting in Colorado) were government operations designed to scare the populace into accepting government actions they would otherwise be opposed to. (All as directed by their serpent overlords.) It's called problem-reaction-solution. Same as 9/11. Like this, Problem: Gov't wants to take the firearms out of the hands of the population. No way that's gonna happen. What do they do? Orchestrate a terrible tragedy that hopefully gets the population to scream for what the gov't initially wanted to propose. Gun control. That's the reaction. The solution, at the public's demand, they enact strict gun control legislation. The people get what they want (guns off our streets!!) and the gov't gets what they want (the first step towards a police state). See how that works? But it didn't work after Colorado so they had to up the ante. I'm not saying I believe that theory but in some cases, it's more believable than "the official story". If you think the gov't wouldn't kill innocent children, think again. Innocent children are killed in wars lead by the US all the time. It doesn't matter if it's in Afghaniston, Iraq or right in America, innocent children are innocent children. Yet in war, it's deemed acceptable, merely casualties. Again, I'm not saying I believe this theory (at least not necessarily in this case) but I can't totally discount it either. It makes about as much sense as some kid snapping because his mother controlled him, killing her THEN going to a school and going on a rampage. I'll admit he was mentally ill but if this was about control, I don't think it would have went down like that. Maybe I read too much Icke or Tsarion but I don't trust governments. I'm not saying this is my theory, I'm just saying I'm surprised I haven't heard much of that theory being thrown around regarding this shooting. Maybe I've just been avoiding the outlets where I would hear it because I don't want to think children died for that reason. I dunno.
Well, I've sufficiently filled my time and gotten some stuff off my chest.
Let the arguing begin. (at least on the first few and last issues. You can't possibly side with the Baptists.)
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