Thursday, January 24, 2013

The Post About Guns I Didn't Want to Do But Holy Hell

If you know me, you know I don't want to talk about anything serious. I want to (try to) entertain and I want to be entertained. Because life is too short to not roll like that. I was gonna blog about meatloaf today but I've reach my breaking point on this war that's going on between the people who are trying to protect their right to bear arms and the people who want stricter gun control.

Before we go on, if you DO know me, you know I ain't about to drop some facts and percentages and shit like that on you. I'm not a fucking statistician. I'm a girl with a heart that hurts over this and I am here to talk about my feelings and opinions ONLY.

My back story with regard to this issue is that I don't really like guns. But ironically, I work in the public safety field (and though many of the four of you who might read this know me in real life and know what I do, I choose to not mix my job with this public area so that's all I can say), so not only have I been around guns but I am friends with many people who very much want their 2nd Amendment rights protected.

And I get it. I do. I'm not about to go try and find numbers about accidents in the home involving guns vs. people who protect themselves with them (see part about not being a statistician). And I know people who hunt and I totally respect their right to do it. I would never own a gun, and I would never hunt, but I TOTALLY respect the right of people who do.

I also do not know what the answer is as far as getting the guns out of the hands of bad guys. Like, at all. I know that if something is illegal, or hard to get, it doesn't mean people won't get it. Period.

I need to apologize right now because this post is going to be all over the damn place. I haven't even finished one cup of coffee, and I'm purposefully trying to write this fast because it's not fun and I want to get it over with.

Recently, obviously, the reason this conversation has been all over the place and is getting heated is because of what happened in Newtown. People in favor of gun control are even more so now because they just had their hearts broken because what happened was beyond horrific. The kind of thing that makes your brain a sad, swirling, terrible place because it is so unbelievable that something like this could have happened. But it did happen. And we could also go into a discussion about mental health but I'm just talking about guns so I'm not going to do that.

The point is that people who already had strong opinions now have even STRONGER ones, fueled by this sadness and heartbreak. Fueled by a desire that no parent should be scared to send their child off to school. They don't want that any other parent of a Kindergartener sends their child to school and finds out that their child was killed at school that day.

Obviously, no one wants that to happen to anyone.

The people who do not want stricter gun control don't want kids to killed. Obviously. But here is the first of my two problems with some of the people who are getting mad that people are calling for stricter gun control.

It's not the message. It's the way you're spreading the message.

Spread your message from a place of compassion and understanding WHY these people are getting worked up about gun control.

The tragedy in Newtown happened like, a minute ago. It's not some way off thing in history. And it happened to those poor people in that town, and it happened to ALL OF US, collectively. All of us wept that day, all of us had our hearts broken, all of us hugged our kids tighter that day, it affected ALL OF US.

The last straw for me was that there are people who are trying to prove that the massacre in Newtown did not happen. If this is the first you're hearing of that, then, like me, you're probably like, WHAT THE FUCK?

Let me get this straight... there are people who are trying to drum up evidence that on that day, all of those people, all of those children, really did not get killed?

Really?

Someone, maybe the government, in an effort to get the country on board with stricter gun control laws, concocted a massacre. And not at a mall, or an office building. At a school, primarily in a classroom full of Kindergarten children.

SERIOUSLY?

Okay, I know that most people who want to keep their guns and feel like people are trying to infringe upon their rights would also think this is utterly ridiculous. But it just reminded me of the tone of the conversation I've been seeing.

Look. I'm always saying something about Republicans and Democrats, because I'm a Democrat, but I know a bunch of Republicans, and maybe even love some of them. This part is really important, so everyone fucking listen:

WE ALL WANT THE SAME SHIT. WE JUST DON'T AGREE ON HOW TO GET IT.

NO ONE wants innocent children to get killed.
NO ONE wants crazy people or bad guys to have guns.

See? We agree on something.

So can we PLEASE act like caring, compassionate human beings with each other and figure out how the fuck to do this?

I don't know the answer. I just know that we should always try to be nice to each other.

1 comment:

Kimberly Gallagher-Wright said...

Amen! Thank you for this post...I can barely articulate anything coherent on the topic of gun control, because it's an emotional topic. But so true...we all come from the same place, and agree on the issues...just not the action associated with the issues. If we can just have this as a starting point for respectful dialogue, this would be a positive start. :)