I keep thinking back to the classic and tragically oft repeated Onion article about "’No Way To Prevent This’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”. It was once biting satire. Now it's more like a desperate plea.
This is an ongoing relentless tragedy of our own making. The right to own firearms, while guaranteed in the constitution, has been distorted and warped by gun manufacturers and the NRA . I think everyone should, as my husband suggested, be allowed to own a musket. That is what our forefathers were talking about, not weapons of war. I imagine they would be as horrified as I am by the results of the way the constitution has been twisted to generate as much profit as possible, to hell with the carnage. And for Brian Kemp, best friend of irresponsible gun ownership, to have the gall to say “this is not the time to talk politics” is heartless and disgusting. If not now, when. I choose the innocent victims over the right to own weapons of war whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. My heart does go out to everybody who has lost someone to these senseless tragedies. It doesn’t have to be this way.
I discovered yesterday that in America you have a thing called
The Bulletproof Backpack Industry
And I really don’t even know what to say
I live near a school here in Australia and the only thought I have about kids backpacks is laughing at how comically oversized they are on such tiny little kids, but you decided bringing up thoughts of Kevlar is better I guess
I am surprised (and also not surprised) that your trademark optimism is completely missing in this piece.
This is not criticism, it's more of a lament that if they brought YOU down, then we are probably screwed.
I will also confess that when I heard about the shooting I immediately thought of a few friends who live in that area as well as you and your family. I'm from Nebraska, and the tornado analogy really hit home.
I will just continue to hope that none of "my people" get unlucky. What a world we live in...
I consider myself an optimist, but I do think you have to earn optimism: Just blindly believing everything is going to be OK isn't optimism, it's just wishcasting. I find it difficult to see any progress happening in this particular regard.
That's what is so galling about this topic: It's never going to get better. Ever. If dead 6 year olds can't sway public opinion then nothing ever will. (The argument that a pile of dead congressmen might change things has yet to be tested, but if that happens we'll have other problems).
“Shootings aren’t horrific aberrant tragedies to them. They’re tornadoes—something you hope doesn’t come your way but that you better be ready for if one does.”
This is perfectly put. I wish you’d never had cause to write it, but that’s it.
A few years ago, there’d be campus announcements about locking doors and emergency procedure reminder emails after one of these. Now, there is nothing but a broad district condolence right ahead of the jobs fair link and water polo tournament results. Why keep repeating what’s been repeated so many times?
I think that's right. People just have accepted that nothing will happen to help and are doing their best on their own. Which is sad with anything, but especially this.
Will, something did change after Sandy Hook. Wrong-wing hate radio and the like started to lose their bite, culminating with the lawsuit against Alex Jones. So, not all is lost. Plus the Oxford parents got convicted.
I keep thinking back to the classic and tragically oft repeated Onion article about "’No Way To Prevent This’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens”. It was once biting satire. Now it's more like a desperate plea.
💔
That's all I can think of to say.
💔
This is an ongoing relentless tragedy of our own making. The right to own firearms, while guaranteed in the constitution, has been distorted and warped by gun manufacturers and the NRA . I think everyone should, as my husband suggested, be allowed to own a musket. That is what our forefathers were talking about, not weapons of war. I imagine they would be as horrified as I am by the results of the way the constitution has been twisted to generate as much profit as possible, to hell with the carnage. And for Brian Kemp, best friend of irresponsible gun ownership, to have the gall to say “this is not the time to talk politics” is heartless and disgusting. If not now, when. I choose the innocent victims over the right to own weapons of war whose sole purpose is to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. My heart does go out to everybody who has lost someone to these senseless tragedies. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Your husband is smart!
And it tracks with Republican schemes since they want to roll back our laws and rights 200 years.
To the barricades!
I don't disagree with any of this. I just ... have heard all this many, many, MANY times before.
Come on out with it: tough gun regulation. Kids or guns?
Kids? I think I'm gonna with go with kids here. (Uh, I would think this piece made that pretty clear?)
I discovered yesterday that in America you have a thing called
The Bulletproof Backpack Industry
And I really don’t even know what to say
I live near a school here in Australia and the only thought I have about kids backpacks is laughing at how comically oversized they are on such tiny little kids, but you decided bringing up thoughts of Kevlar is better I guess
Yeah. This is not a good situation we have going on over here.
absolutely gutting. every time.
I am surprised (and also not surprised) that your trademark optimism is completely missing in this piece.
This is not criticism, it's more of a lament that if they brought YOU down, then we are probably screwed.
I will also confess that when I heard about the shooting I immediately thought of a few friends who live in that area as well as you and your family. I'm from Nebraska, and the tornado analogy really hit home.
I will just continue to hope that none of "my people" get unlucky. What a world we live in...
I consider myself an optimist, but I do think you have to earn optimism: Just blindly believing everything is going to be OK isn't optimism, it's just wishcasting. I find it difficult to see any progress happening in this particular regard.
That's what is so galling about this topic: It's never going to get better. Ever. If dead 6 year olds can't sway public opinion then nothing ever will. (The argument that a pile of dead congressmen might change things has yet to be tested, but if that happens we'll have other problems).
“Shootings aren’t horrific aberrant tragedies to them. They’re tornadoes—something you hope doesn’t come your way but that you better be ready for if one does.”
This is perfectly put. I wish you’d never had cause to write it, but that’s it.
A few years ago, there’d be campus announcements about locking doors and emergency procedure reminder emails after one of these. Now, there is nothing but a broad district condolence right ahead of the jobs fair link and water polo tournament results. Why keep repeating what’s been repeated so many times?
I think that's right. People just have accepted that nothing will happen to help and are doing their best on their own. Which is sad with anything, but especially this.
Will, something did change after Sandy Hook. Wrong-wing hate radio and the like started to lose their bite, culminating with the lawsuit against Alex Jones. So, not all is lost. Plus the Oxford parents got convicted.
I don't disagree with this. But I don't think it has actually CHANGED anything.