Before I start with my thoughts on the tragedy in Parkland, I need to take care of some basic truths about me. I am a conservative Independent. I did not vote for Trump. I praise him when he does something good, I criticize him when he acts a fool. Nor did I vote for Clinton. I am not a NRA member. I lay these statements out there so no one makes assumptions. With this post, I’m going to list my thoughts off. I couldn’t figure out how to form this into an interwoven, connected blog, so a list is whatcha get.
Since the shooting happened, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking. One day, I was seething mad about it all, sat down and blasted off a snarky, ticked off blog post. I read it over and realized it was chock full of emotion and it was bad. I deleted it. I needed to back off, think, ask, listen, and pray. I needed to formulate my thoughts based off of logic and reason, not emotions. I listened to both political sides. I talked with my teen and asked her thoughts on the matter. I spoke with my husband and listened to his thoughts. So, let’s dive in shall we?
1. I do support the 2nd Amendment, because I understand why it is there. I see it as a necessity. If you have a government with all the major weapons and the people are left with clubs and pitchforks, well, chances are slim for the populace. On two separate occasions, I have had a gun pointed at my face by two abusive boyfriends. Both instances were utterly terrifying. When my husband and I were dating, he was held at gun point in a gas station.ย I have been negatively effected by guns and so have members of my family. Even with these situations, I still support the 2nd Amendment. I have shot a Glock. I know that a 12-gaugeย will put me on my butt and I know what it feels like to shoot a .22. There is much power in shooting a gun. I’m not slobbery goo-goo over them, but I do see their purpose. I’m, also, not an expert on guns or gun laws.
2. Guns are not evil in and of themselves. Why not? Well, because they can be used for good, necessary, and neutral purposes. The good is hunting to sustain life. I’m not for the senseless killing of animals for sport, but killing game to feed a family and oneself is not bad. Guns are necessary many times to defend oneself or to stop someone who is killing others. We all have a right to defend our lives and the innocent lives of others. Guns can be neutral in sport, such as clay shooting and target practice. Some people really enjoy doing this and the act, in and of itself, is neutral. Guns become bad when a bad person uses them to kill innocent people.
3. There has been many mistruths, untruths, and embellishments from both political parties. I can’t stand this. You compromise your integrity every single time you do this. It shows that only an agenda matters. For example, there has been a meme floating around that says since the start of the new year there have been 18 school shootings. This is not true. Do you all remember since January 1st, coverage of 18 school shootings? No, you don’t, because it’s not true. Something just came out the other day that said it was easier to buy a gun in Florida than Sudafed. This is untrue. Credibility is lost when truth is not spoken and lies are told to push an agenda. We all would do well to remember, also, that snarky memes and propaganda videos rarely if ever change anyone’s mind. Usually they do the opposite and push people farther away. No major cultural issue is going to be won using memes.
4. Whenever one of these shootings happen, people rush to blame every political person since the beginning of time. The person to blame is the shooter. He chose to break the law and murder. The FBI is also to blame because of their failure to follow-up on leads that the shooter was dangerous. No matter if the president is the most horrific person on earth or an angel sitting in the Oval Office, there is literally nothing he can do to prevent such a thing from happening. Which brings me to my next point.
5. You could ban all guns and create law after law after law and it will not prevent things like this. Drugs, with the exception of marijuana in some states, are illegal and, yet, people get them. There is not a law on earth that has been able to keep crime from happening. We have laws against murdering people no matter what your weapon. Is there a better law we could enact that would stop murder? No. We have laws banning the carrying of weapons by unauthorized people on school campuses, and, yet, the shooter did not obey. Laws are broken every day all over the country. Just by being in existence, laws do not have the ability to stop crime. Laws allow authorities after the fact to punish you for breaking the law. True, they do keep some people in check, but as we see, there are a lot of people who break the rules. It’s why I hated restraining orders when I worked in the sexual and domestic violence field. That piece of paper very often was ignored by the perpetrator. All it really allowed the cops to do was arrest him after the fact for breaking the restraining order. All this, after he had terrorized his partner. Also, of note, we have background checks for guns. It would not have mattered in this case because the shooter had no background. It’s a helpful law in some cases, but not for first-timers. I would agree that looking into the mental health side of this issue is something that needs to be done.
6. I see a lot of people on the right jump to the abortion issue. The argument is something like this, “Oh, you want guns banned because children are dying? Well, I can’t take you seriously if you support abortion, because millions of children die every year due to abortion and you don’t seem to care about that.” I get why this argument is pulled out, but it’s not helpful. To add to that, it can be turned right back on the pro-life community. Pro-choice advocates can say, “Oh, you don’t like children dying? Well, seems you won’t do anything to stop these mass shootings. Seems that you are only pro-unborn children.” Of course it’s nonsense; pro-lifers do not want children to die by mass shootings, just as they don’t want children dying by abortion. However, all these two arguments do is divide and force people to take sides and nobody listens to anybody. It’s not helpful. My husband tells our kids to get people on their team. In making either side defensive, it conveys the message that you aren’t really about a workable solution, but more about scoring points.
7. Many on the left have trotted out the typical slogan of “We need gun control!” Problem is, is that no one really lays out a logical, reasonable, effective plan. Confiscating all guns and banning them is unrealistic and never going to happen. It is important to also remember that just because someone doesn’t agree with your gun control policy doesn’t mean that they have no compassion for victims of shooting violence. We have a problem in this country with saying, “Look, you either agree with me, or you must want children to die in the streets.” It’s such a binary way of looking at things and it is done with the purpose of forcing a hand. Either I have to agree with you, thereby proving that I truly do care OR I don’t, thereby proving that I am a heartless, evil monster fed on the blood of children. This is ridiculous. This tactic does nothing to help anything. It shuts down debate and keeps everyone divided. Maybe, just maybe, I have a different opinion on what will be effective. Let’s talk about it like grown-ups and flesh out the issue to see if we can come to an ACTUAL SOLUTION.
8. No good decision was ever made in a state of emotional chaos. Emotions are not a good indicator of reasonableness. As a fairly emotional person, I know this well. Facts, logic, reason and evidence should all be part of the solution-making process and, yet, when one of these shootings happens, we leap to emotional pleas. I get it. People are angry, hurt, suffering, and they want something done. However, if we really want to lessen the occurrences of school shootings, we need to think logically. What usually happens is the country comes off looking like two divorced parents screaming at each other while trying to make a decision for their kid. Each side wants to inflict pain and neither side really has the child’s best interest at heart.
9. When I asked my daughter what she would do, one of the first things she said was, “Why not have armed guards at the schools?” I know that people don’t like this idea, because it makes our schools “a war zone.” These criminals are making our schools a war zone and our kids are left defenseless. We have armed guards in lots of places and we don’t think these places are war zones. We have precautions at airports, stadiums, malls, and banks. It is a short-term solution, but we do know based on evidence that if a criminal even thinks that another person has a gun, they are less likely to attack. I wish it didn’t have to be this way, but just because we wish it didn’t have to be this way, doesn’t mean it isn’t a smart thing to do. What if it actually worked? What if it was a workable option? Why not give it a try? I live on base and there are armed guards at all the gates. I feel safer on base than when I live off base. It’s not a 100% assurance, but I know that armed criminals are less likely to rush the guards. Naturally, they are going to choose an easier target.
10. Do not tell people to stop praying and offering their thoughts to the victims. People can do more than one thing at a time. I can pray and do something else to try to fix this problem. Think of how lonely and abandoned the victims and their families would feel if we the American people just shut-up and didn’t offer words to them. It would almost be cruel. This new trend of telling believers to knock it off with the prayers is just stupid. Just stop with this rhetoric. Please, just stop. If you don’t want to pray, fine. It hurts you none that I do and it doesn’t mean it is the only thing I am doing. You are not a better American because you don’t pray or offer your thoughts to the survivors. Sometimes, it’s all that people have to give.
11. The long-term solution is not a popular idea. It would take time, patience, and diligence on the part of every American. Our culture needs to change. Our families are broken and many boys have no positive male role-models to model. They are given a caricature of manhood through media and our culture. They are taught that a “real” man takes vengeance and uses violence to put people in their place. We have a serious lack of virtue development in our country. Life is not seen as sacred and when people are offended or their pride is wounded, they take it out on others. We don’t teach boys to use their strength for good and to help those that are weaker than them. We have many lost boys and men who are floating through life with no real purpose and they want to belong to something. They want to be known. So, they get involved in heinous, evil groups that teach hate all so that they feel that they have a purpose. We will never fully eradicate violence and we would be foolish to think that any law or policy will create a peaceful utopia. However, we can start working together to foster virtue in our children, repair our broken homes, tell men that they are needed as good fathers in the lives of their children, and above all teach that life is sacred and it matters.
These are my thoughts and opinions. Like I said, I am no expert. My heart truly does go out to those effected by this senseless and horrific tragedy. I pray that they find comfort in these hard times. I pray that those who lost their lives have found rest with God. May we all step back and remember that nothing was ever solved by putting up a wall.
