Today my three-year-old told me he was going to shoot me.
That's right. This face. This beautiful face at just the tender age of three already has that phrase in his lexicon.
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| 'I'm going to shoot you Daddy. I'm going to shoot you.' |
We don't have guns or most anything resembling a gun in our house. My five-year-old son won a Nerf bow shooter, but we wouldn't have bought it for him. That's about it.
Our kids aren't allowed to watch any violent cartoons yet. No Teen Titans, no Justice League, nothing of the sort. Heck, even PJ Masks was something we kind of removed even though it was sort of cute.
At three years old, having simply attended school with other kids and played with his five-year-old brother and cousin, he's spouting that kind of phraseology.
He doesn't actually know what it would mean to shoot someone. He was playing. And yes, when I was young, I played Cowboys and Indians all the time, and we even had cap guns.
But nothing like the epidemic we now have in this country existed like it does today.
In the wake of all of the mass shootings that have taken place in the last two months, I constantly hear politicians speak on not 'politicizing' these things -- which, of course, is the biggest crock of shit to come around since the work crock was invented.
What they're really saying is we just don't want to talk about it and/or we don't know what to do.
We all know that violence happens in every state. Some have tough gun laws. Others don't. Yet why doesn't it happen in other countries the way it does here?
What they're really saying is we just don't want to talk about it and/or we don't know what to do.
We all know that violence happens in every state. Some have tough gun laws. Others don't. Yet why doesn't it happen in other countries the way it does here?
Shocking enough, this is the second mass shooting that involved a church in the last three years. As it turns out, even those worthy and pious patrons of the Lord are not immune from the wrath of human decay.
Like many other Americans, it has puzzled me why these things keep happening here and not in Great Britain, Australia, and most other civilized nations. Most have banned guns in some form or another -- but banning things can't be the only reason these things don't happen.
Some people will say it's about the fact we have soooooo many people. Except the town of New Braunfels, Texas, where the most recent mass shooting took place has a population under 74,000 (UPDATE: the report was filed from New Braunfels - the actual town where the shooting took place- Sutherland Springs - has a population of 600).
Then it dawned on me. Sometimes it's not about whether the action will work or not, but the message that's sent by the action.
If you stop enabling an alcoholic, they don't necessarily stop drinking. However, the message you send is clear - you will not assist them in their destructive behavior(s). But you need to act.
Praying, as we so often ask others to do in the face of harsh adversity, won't fix the problem. It might bring some peace and strength to overcome the results of such arbitrary and pointless actions as mass shootings, but as we have seen, it won't stop mass shootings.
When you were growing up, did you ever have your parents tell you not to do something, and then go ahead and do that same thing not even twenty-four hours later? Some rule they were setting right? Did you really get a strong message that you couldn't bend that one easily?
I remember we were always supposed to have dinner together and the television was kept in another room. There was no TV in the kitchen, plain and simple. Yet, there were nights where if our dinner ran late, Dad could watch the news from his perfectly positioned chair near the entrance to the family room.
What message did that send? Did they really want television outlawed during dinner time, or were there exceptions? Or did the dinners really even matter? Depending on the frequency at which a rule is broken one can draw a lot of conclusions. We could from this scenario too, but lucky for us, Dad almost never did this. We sat together at dinner every night, and we talked, and argued, and fought over eating green beans -- the things you'd like to think every family does.
One thing was certain: whether or not the television was there, it was off during dinner time. The message was clear:
-- We don't watch television during dinner time in this family. We connect. --
It's not surprising as I've gotten older and started raising my own family, we try, particularly on weekends to always dine together. The message transcends.
What message are our leaders currently sending the American populace about guns?
What message are our leaders currently sending the American populace about guns?
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| If you stop enabling an alcoholic, they don't necessarily stop drinking. But the message you send is clear - destructive behavior won't be tolerated. |
What the hell is wrong with our country?
Man this is messed up. Why does this keep happening?
And I said plainly and probably too loudly -- because we love our guns!
It's true. We do. And I mean we love them in a way that is becoming an epidemic and an illness.
Yes we have a Second Amendment that allows for ownership of firearms.
But owning a firearm is different than spouting to the world and everyone around you that you love guns.
Yes we have a Second Amendment that allows for ownership of firearms.
But owning a firearm is different than spouting to the world and everyone around you that you love guns.
Wanting to have the ability to have a gun that you want to use to hunt or even protect yourself should be your right.
But not legislating high capacity arms meant to slaughter people in high volume on a battlefield of war sends a message loud and clear to those that go and buy them.
WE LOVE OUR GUNS! GUNS ARE GREAT!
And when the message from those who are supposed to be our leaders, our best and brightest minds, is nothing but silence, than the criminals or mental cases, or whatever you wish to call them on any given day, get the message of tacit compliance.
The gunman will be remembered by everyone.
The victims will not.
That's because we love our violence. We love covering it. We love watching it. We love re-enacting it.
The Star Wars-like western, adventure violence of the 1970's has been replaced by the Star Wars violent and vicious, blood-showing, dismemberment violence of the 2000's.
There is nothing left to shock us.
UNTIL....
But not legislating high capacity arms meant to slaughter people in high volume on a battlefield of war sends a message loud and clear to those that go and buy them.
WE LOVE OUR GUNS! GUNS ARE GREAT!
And when the message from those who are supposed to be our leaders, our best and brightest minds, is nothing but silence, than the criminals or mental cases, or whatever you wish to call them on any given day, get the message of tacit compliance.
The gunman will be remembered by everyone.
The victims will not.
That's because we love our violence. We love covering it. We love watching it. We love re-enacting it.
The Star Wars-like western, adventure violence of the 1970's has been replaced by the Star Wars violent and vicious, blood-showing, dismemberment violence of the 2000's.
There is nothing left to shock us.
UNTIL....
It is one of ours that dies on this battlefield. Then, and only then, does this become sadly too real. Too tragic. Too much.
It is time that our legislators at the highest federal and state levels do something. Even if there are those who have statistics that claim it can't work, the message in doing something might begin a turnaround.
Second Amendment nuts will scream all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue, but since when does their Second Amendment Right supersede the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Simply put, it doesn't.
It's not about whether Australia or Britain knew a gun ban or some sort of legislation would work. It was that they were brave enough to send the message that their respective governments would not accept a population where one person would slaughter so many so quickly without any way to prevent it.
My three-year-old just told his daddy for the first time he was going to shoot him. I know he didn't mean it. Let's just hope all the other three-year-olds don't either.
It is time that our legislators at the highest federal and state levels do something. Even if there are those who have statistics that claim it can't work, the message in doing something might begin a turnaround.
Second Amendment nuts will scream all the way up Pennsylvania Avenue, but since when does their Second Amendment Right supersede the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
Simply put, it doesn't.
It's not about whether Australia or Britain knew a gun ban or some sort of legislation would work. It was that they were brave enough to send the message that their respective governments would not accept a population where one person would slaughter so many so quickly without any way to prevent it.
My three-year-old just told his daddy for the first time he was going to shoot him. I know he didn't mean it. Let's just hope all the other three-year-olds don't either.
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