After returning from Fort Lauderdale and driving just east of Parkland to Boca Raton on Valentine's Day, Ash Wednesday, the day that 17 more families were shattered due to a person opening fire on his peers, having been so close, I am even more pained and angered and saddened... how much more will I/we accept and just carry on?
For those of us that are outside of the perimeter of these communities/schools/events when they happen, it seems we don't even discuss it, grieve, act, help anymore-- put ourselves in each others' shoes. These insane human killings are frequenting our lives and barely shock our nation and culture anymore. It's being normalized. Each consecutive shooting, we must consider that it can, and could, and eventually will happen to each of us if we continue to push it down, let it go, accept it, avoid changing, brace for the next, only 'think and pray' about it.
My sister Robin died in a car accident in 1999. Our Lord and our friends and family came to our rescue and to walk along the road of grief and healing with us. Devastation. It should be an exclusive club: Losing a child. It's not anymore. It's becoming terribly common. Twenty kindergarteners at Sandy Hook El. Murdered by a person wielding an assault rifle. Twenty-five families, fifty parents lost their five and six year old babies to bullets in their own classrooms. Their friends and extended families completely devastated. So seventeen MORE families are walking -- crawling along this indescribably painful road now. Not to mention the ripple effect of those murdered kids' friends, teachers and extended families.
Mental illness and guns. The cause of these killings. The New York Times just cited that since the Sandy Hook murders of kindergarteners and teachers in 2012, there have been 400 shootings in 200 schools; 138 people have been murdered. What on God's green earth. And NOTHING has been done to change the laws and attempt to prevent it.
Of course -- we know that people that mass murder are mentally ill. Mental illness can run long and deep -- and secretive, thanks unfortunately to its stigma and the mystery and extent of our brains. We need to work towards lifting the surrounding negative stigmas and as adults, be present and communicative and teach our kids to be respectful and kind to others. Promoting and providing communication and counseling and human, caring connection.
But guns? Relatively instantly, we can pass laws that attempt to physically remove guns from these travesties and what's left? This week, seventeen families would not be in devastation from their son or daughter being shot to death at their school. We need to remove guns from our everyday lives; limit them as much as humanly possible. They literally need to be put on a pedestal and revered and reserved and respected. The right to bear arms? It's not working in this twenty-first century. Tell me how many lives have been saved by bearing arms.
I think we'll all be OK -- including gun rights proponents and second amendment activists -- if we give gun control a try. My Lord, it's worth a try. We have to set aside our passion for guns, gun rights and gun profits and at least try to slow, decrease and stop the loss of human life.
We won't be, and we aren't OK bearing arms and leaving gun violence un-researched and untempered; we Americans, our sons and daughters are being killed in staggering numbers by hundreds of bullets from assault rifles. Why do we need these? Because some people think they're cool and/or profitable? Let's for a moment put our brothers' and sisters' human lives ahead of gun profits and our right to have guns around.
To issue a sympathy statement and ignore the opportunity to prevent the deadly and devastating aftermath of gun violence is pathetic. We're continuing to the put the cart before the horse by turning a blind eye to the changes that need to be made to save our and our neighbors' lives. We need a license to drive. We need a permit to put to redo a kitchen. We need to register and pay annually for our cars. We need a license to fish. In my town, you need a license to have a dog. A license to have a gun can be a simple start. What about a gun tax? We tax our houses and they're not even a detriment to our society. Assault rifles and certain ammunition need to be banned or at least highly, highly regulated. Moves such as these will not cause death. This will not devastate and bring families to their knees in grief and pain.
We need to profile the murderers. Study their lives and their habits and share the information with our country and in turn, we as parents, co-workers, teachers, coaches, neighbors, friends, acquaintances need to learn and change and act and constantly communicate with and love our kids.
Honestly, my opinion; less hours on social media and screens and video games (especially violent ones) and more hours outside and being together; showing care and kindness and sharing laughs and activity, would cure a whole lot. No more hiding behind screens -- time to step up, step out to real life and friendship and kindness. Living our lives together in person, in reality. Not through a screen, alone with our apps. Kids can't handle it and we adults aren't the greatest at it either. The frequency that we're all staring at a screen is not humane, it's not healthy, it's not real life. It robs us and our loved ones - anyone around us - of being present, attentive and it prevents us from listening to each other and being a positive presence in all of our little worlds and the world as a whole.
The sadness and helplessness is my 11-year old son's voice, while we were in Fort Lauderdale, asking how close we were to the school where yet another mass shooting occurred in yet another school was heart wrenching. Not one of us, especially our kids, should be having to repeatedly deal with the death and destruction -- of God forbid (and be with) those that are near -- nor from afar.
Lord have mercy on us. Guide us. Help us. Move us to action and peace and loving and connecting with and caring for each other better.
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