Sorry, But I Have a Problem with 19 More Dead Kids
On the day of the Texas school shooting, I actually heard someone throw out the tired, old stupid cliche, “guns don’t kill people….”
I wanted to vomit.
To be specific, I’m talking about the Uvalde, Texas shooting where 19 elementary school children plus two teachers were murdered inside their classroom. I have to be specific about the location and body count, because’ve already had 30 school shootings in 2022. I don’t want you to be confused about which one I’m referring to.
Yes, guns do kill people. And if you don’t believe that… Well, nobody really believes that do they. It’s just something people say and we’re just supposed to nod and go on.
I own more than one gun.
But I don’t have an AR-15. No civilian needs one of those. And to think that Salvador Ramos legally bought himself two plus 375 bullets on is 18th birthday is ludicrous.
And those 375 bullets were made for one reason and one reason only.
To kill people.
That’s why they’re designed to tumble when they hit flesh so they can inflict the most damage possible.
And yeah, Ramos had a tough home life. He was bullied for a speech impediment. His mother was a drug addict. He had lashed out.
But all he has to do was whip out the old plastic down at Murder Weapons R Us.
The satirical news website The Onion posts this headline after nearly every mass shooting: "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says the Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens."
Some people think Uvalde will change things.
Nope. Nothing is going to change until we stop looking at this as republican vs. democrat. Nothing is going to change until politicians stand up to gun lobbying groups, and the NRA in particular. According to an article in Fortune, gun rights groups spent $15.8 million on lobbying last year.
There’s nothing conservative about opposing laws that restrict who can have access to guns.
We have laws to restrict who can drive a car, buy a six pack or get on a roller coaster, for heaven’s sake.
But Space Mountain isn’t protected by the Constitution. That must be the difference.
After 9/11, President Bush said, “You are either with us, or you are with the terrorists.”
This is no different. You’re either with us, or you’re with the people who think it’s ok for it to be harder to buy a bottle or Sudafed than an assault rifle.
Washington, D.C., has strict gun laws. Can you imagine how the Jan. 6 insurrection attempt would’ve looked if the insurrectionists had all been able to take their AR-15s to the Capitol?
Oh, but the Second Amendment.
Yeah, the Second Amendment was written during the muzzle-loader days, not the automatic weapon days. It needs an overhaul.
Let’s arm the teachers!
I just used my first exclamation point ever in this column, because this one is beyond idiotic. The police were afraid to confront the Uvalde gunman. But we expect Miss Higgins the librarian to lock and load, and kick the door down.
Oh, but we always have thoughts and prayers.
“Thoughts and prayers” is a code phrase used by politicians on the NRA’s payroll.
But since that’s probably all we’re ever going to get, here are mine.
My thoughts are with the parents of those dead kids who have to live the rest of their lives with a massive black hole sucking the life out of their soul. If parents don’t love their children more than they love their assault weapons, then there is positively no hope for us.
And my prayer is that some kind of divine intervention will kick some sense into the heads of whoever thinks giving a troubled 18-year-old a weapon of mass destruction is somehow a good idea.
We need to fire every politician who doesn’t support common sense gun laws and replace them with people who value American lives more than they value their cut of that $15.8 million hush money.
Because we all know another school shooting is coming. And next time, it might just be down the street.
For a lot of people, it already has.