I could not watch the news last night. The coverage of the most recent school shootings in Florida chilled me to my core. I thought of all the normal mornings that happened in the houses of those victims. The things that parents meant to say and waited till after school. The things kids meant to say but that slipped their minds as they rushed to find homework, permission slips and lunch cash. Lives that changed in the blink of an eye, never to be the same. I look at my kids and can't imagine how i would go on if that happened to us. I know you have to go on. I don't know how.
I'm filled with anger that a country like ours can not find a way to keep our most treasured resource--human life--safe. I come from a family of hunters. My dad hunted every year--deer, rabbit, birds. I am not a stranger to guns and I don't fear guns per se. I have shot them. I have had 16 hours of handgun training as part of my black belt test for my first degree test.
But guns have a place. And certain guns don't in my mind, have a place in civilian hands. Guns like that one used in Florida would be one such. You don't hunt deer with that. You hunt people. We are so afraid that legislation will take away our second amendment rights that we are willing to risk exterminating ourselves. We blame it on mental health issues instead of the fact that access to these weapons is far, far too easy. The people who wrote that second amendment had single shot rifles that took a minute to load. They did not envision the advances in weaponry that are available today.
Most people with mental illness are not violent. But we cut services to this population and then stigmatize them further by blaming them for this situation. Both parts of the tragic equation need to be addressed. Until we do, I see no way to believe things will improve.
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