The NYT quotes Everett Wilkinson a Marine Corps veteran who owns several
AR-15 style guns as saying "the issue we have is not banning weapons, it's
crazy people."
And since I don't know Mr. Wilkinson, or whether he has ever suffered from
PTSD and knows where I live - I will not tell him I disagree with him!
But we probably both can agree that legally deciding who is "crazy" in our Country
is about as definitive as "Call Me Maybe."...otherwise how would Glenn Beck still
have a career?
So if we can't ban crazy people...can we at least ask each other to love and protect our 2nd graders with the same passion and commitment that Wayne LaPierre protects ...the 2nd Amendment.
I don't expect to rally to the cause, the "Armageddon Weekend Warriors" - who
won't even read this because there is no internet access in their survival shelter,
- don't know that the Alamo is now a rental car company, not the last cry for freedom
- and that Spam is maps spelled backwards when you hold it up to a mirror.
But I do expect the Weekend Hunters, the Gun Show Collectors, and the Sportsmen to
make it harder on themselves to get a gun...in order to make it more difficult for a
"crazy person" to get a gun!...or be willing to only see some guns in a Museum instead
of being used in a crime in their local community.
They can no longer act like a Silencer on a Beretta...when they know their voice can be the most powerful weapon on this issue of all.
This time they can support a Gun Law that is not written by the NRA as it was in 1994,
that was so weak that 40% of all guns purchased would not be subject to a background
check.
This time not allow 1.5 million semi-automatic rifles to still be on the streets and millions more allowed to be sold with slight and technical modifications to existing models.
This time they can support a ban on magazines that hold 30-50-100 bullets at a clip and not allow them still to be imported from overseas after the ban goes into effect.
This time they can address the elephant in the room...which, sorry they are not allowed to shoot..whether or not our easy access and "gun on demand" mentality contributed to this tragedy, or if we had been more vigilant, could we have minimized this horrific incident and those that preceded it.
Ironically, on December 14th, the very same day that a "crazy" person went on
a rampage and opened fire in Newton, Connecticut and killed 20 small children,
there was another "crazy" person that brutally attacked 23 children at another
elementary school.
This school was in Henan Province, China and it didn't make the front page of the
NYT or the lead story in our National News!...because those children survived.
This "crazy person's" weapon of choice was not a gun but a meat cleaver. Days
following the horrific incident, their Nation watched a school video that captured
teachers fighting off the attacker with broomsticks, while our Country watched
tearful memorial services.
Same day - Same "crazy attack" - far different result!
Both Countries started immediate conversations on school safety, the mentally ill,
and gun control.
In China, they discussed how grateful they were that they didn't have our lax gun
control laws, while many here questioned ...the need for more guns to solve the problem!
Last year more American's died at the hands of a gun in our Country than who died
at 9/11 - and the entire decade long war's in Iraq and Afghanistan...combined!!!
Now, in China their crazy people don't have the same access to guns as our crazy people,
nor do they have the same access to our "Bill of Rights"...but shouldn't we both have the same chance to hug our children tonight?
...And isn't that the most important "Right of All"!