By now, everybody must have heard about the mass shooting that occurred at a gay night club in Orlando over the weekend (or you must be living under a rock). These things are happening way too frequently now and at first, I debated if I really wanted to post about it or not, because honestly, I am at a loss of words. But I think it’s important that people talk about it and even more important that we do something about it.
50 young people lost their lives, 53 more wounded in this senseless act of hate. I can’t wrap my head around the fact that a person can carry so much hate inside themselves that they would go out and try to harm or kill people.
The tragic thing is that there is going to be 24-hours of outrage and finger-pointing and stereotyping and then the sad and frustrating, yet at this point predictable realization that nothing will be done about gun control in America to prevent such crimes.
Where were all the concealed weapon carrying gun men that always insist that crimes like that don’t happen if ‘responsible gun owners’ are around? [\sarcasm off]I have yet to hear about a mass shooting where a gun owner has killed the assailant and thus prevented senseless killings. The odds are that these people will have their backs to the assailant and will be just as surprised by the assault as everybody else, because frankly, nobody expects to experience something like this… and yet, here we are again. 176 mass shootings (with 4 or more victims) in 2016. People, this is crazy. I am sure President Obama is sick and tired of speaking about such events again and again and again without any real change happening as a result of it. Is this the kind of country America wants to be? Apparently so.
It’s impossible to not feel paralyzed and helpless in light of these events. But, what can we do to stop this madness?
[bctt tweet=”… to actively do nothing is a decision as well. – President Obama” username=”san_in_ca”]
There is something wrong in a world where people grow up to hate other people and think they have the right to go out and hurt, stigmatize, oppress, or worse, kill those who are different from themselves. I do not understand that people can’t let people be people. It’s still under investigation if this massacre was terrorism or a hate crime (or both), but I still need to ask: what’s two men kissing each other (that’s what apparently upset the shooter) doing to you personally? NOTHING. Nothing at all.
I don’t understand how people don’t support sensible gun laws in this country. I can’t come up with any sensible reason why any civilian needs to own an assault rifle (or any gun for this matter, unless you live in rural Vermont and need a shot gun to scare off bears).
There is proof that stricter gun laws work in other countries (and please, don’t tell me “America is different”. Different how? Different that we’d rather be ok to see people slain than give up a slice of our so-called freedom? Give me a break). We can sit around and just be onlookers to more violence that is – without doubt – going to happen, pretend outrage and secretly cross our fingers that we and our loved ones might be spared from such a tragedy (good luck with that!), or we do something about it. At the very least, let’s get assault rifles out of the hands of civilians. NOW.
If we can’t stop people with crazy convictions from thinking what they’re thinking, we can at least make sure that they don’t have access to the tools that allow them to commit these horrible mass murders. I don’t know if petitions really do anything, but here are two petitions that you can sign (click on the images). It’s a start, and we gotta start somewhere.
We have to do something… anything … to show that we won’t stand for hate and violence. Write or tweet your elected representatives. Be someone who other people can turn to by showing that you’re kind, loving and compassionate, that you don’t judge others by their gender, skin color, beliefs or lifestyle.
[bctt tweet=”Be that someone who doesn’t judge others by their gender, skin color, beliefs or lifestyle.” username=”san_in_ca”]
Treat others as you‘d like to be treated. It’s a rather simple concept, really.
Tanja
June 14, 2016 at 9:34 amI love you San! (hope, I don’t offend you/anybody)
Your post reflects my thought to the *T*!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There is nothing to add, it’s just super sad and devastating that we live in a world full of hate and crime.
san
June 17, 2016 at 3:07 pm<3
Lisa of Lisa's Yarns
June 14, 2016 at 11:50 amYour post is spot on. I have signed the petition to ban assault rifles. There’s just no reason that any civilian should have access to that sort of weapon.
I recently heard about a book called 2nd Amendment on a podcast so plan to check it out at some point. It explains the reasoning behind the 2nd amendment and how it’s been twisted through the years.
Marie
June 17, 2016 at 9:21 amI hate to say this (and this is why people call me a pessimist when I just see myself as a realist because I look at the facts), but there’s not much we can do. Assault rifles SHOULD be banned. Military-grade weapons SHOULD be banned. Civilians never need them. Hunters will even tell you that they don’t use such weapons to hunt game (like deer) and that these types of weapons ruin the kill completely (as in you can’t even eat what you hunted).
At the same time though, the NRA has built, over decades, a strong and very powerful lobby in government that we, the people, can do nothing about. We can sign all the petitions in the world over and over and over again, but nothing is going to change these policies because there are many politicians in Congress (both House and Senate) who will continue to back NRA policies (money speaks louder than anything else).
Additionally, remember that there are already A LOT of handguns and assault rifles circulating everywhere, which makes it even more difficult to collect them should a ban actually become policy. These weapons are then either stolen or traded or even handed down to friends/family members. Attempting to remove those from the hands of their owners will, I guarantee you, cause a conservative right-wing uprising in which they would then use those weapons (believe it or not but in the South they do still speak of/joke about “the South will rise again” and I wish I was exaggerating).
Lastly, this wretched piece of human garbage, from what I’ve been reading, seems to have been gay himself or at the very least questioned his sexuality, but grew up in a very religious family where homosexuality was completely banned and frowned upon. He appears to have been a violent person and in the end decided to take it out on others, which is horribly awful and tragic. Even defense agencies have said this wasn’t tied to terrorism. This wanker claimed some sort of allegiance to three groups that all hate each other, which clearly means he didn’t even know much about them.
Ugh. Humans can be so awful. :(
san
June 17, 2016 at 3:09 pmI know it’s hard to change things in this country… we’ve seen that time and time again that after mass shootings (esp. Sandy Hook) people were outraged and then nothing changed. But I still hold on to a glimpse of hope that slowly we can make a difference…. or at least I want to try (eternal optimist right here).
Gretchen
June 17, 2016 at 10:40 amI don’t mean to disagree (and I definitely don’t disagree with the majority of what you say), but you mentioned that you “have yet to hear about a mass shooting where a gun owner has killed the assailant and thus prevented senseless killings”. I just did a Google search and found a few articles with examples in them (here’s one- https://controversialtimes.com/issues/constitutional-rights/12-times-mass-shootings-were-stopped-by-good-guys-with-guns/). I won’t go into what I think the reasons are why these stories aren’t publicized as much as deadly mass shootings, but just wanted to throw that out there. Thank you for sharing your thoughts on this subject though, and I hope this comment doesn’t come off as disrespectful to your post.
san
June 17, 2016 at 3:10 pmNo offense taken… thanks for sharing your thoughts, Gretchen. And I am kinda glad to hear there are some examples of incidents where innocent lives were saved because of some quick-acting people. I just don’t think that overall arming everybody is the solution to the gun problem in this country.
katelin
June 17, 2016 at 1:13 pmxoxoxo
Feisty Harriet
June 27, 2016 at 3:06 pmYes. This. I am so over all of the horrifying news, I have had enough and will no longer sit down and do/say nothing. I’m over being polite and politically correct. I’m pissed.
xox