My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of being told that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. Two days ago a crazy man with a knife attacked 23 people, most of them children at a school in China. None of them died. Yesterday, a crazy man with a gun attacked 27 people, most of them children, at a school in Connecticut. Twenty-six of them died. You do the math.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of being told that there is no absolute right to free speech in this country, no absolute right to a quick and fair trial, and no absolute right that I won’t be tortured. But when I say that there should also be no absolute right to possess a gun, I’m marginalized, scoffed at and called a “bleeding heart”. I know of 20 children and 7 adults whose hearts bled today enough for me for all eternity.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of being told that “it’s too soon” to talk about meaningful gun control after such a tragedy. That it’s “insensitive”, as though bringing up the fact that in some places in this country it is easier and quicker to buy a gun than it is to buy a new phone can be more insensitive than losing your child, or mother, or father, sister, brother.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of my country paying this price in blood so that any number of my fellow citizens can walk the streets with their figurative manhood swinging. I’m tired of wondering if you are going to pull a gun on me in a bar, because you are drunk and I don’t love the local football team enough. I’m tired of wondering if you will decide to teach me a lesson because I accidentally cut you off on the highway. I’m tired of wondering if you will go home today, fight with your significant other, go to some junk drawer for a gun and in a fit of rage shoot them to death. I’m tired of the approximately 800 people in this country killed by firearms every day in this country being acceptable. And I’m tired of wondering if your child will come home from school on Monday.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of hearing about Requiem Masses for the victims of gun massacres. I’m tired of watching candlelight vigils in memory of dead children. I’m tired of wondering where, and when something like this will happen again, knowing full well that it won’t be long enough. I’m tired of sacrificing lives on the altar of the Second Amendment. And I’m tired of not doing anything about it.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m home, and I’m writing to my Congressman, and my Senator. I’m writing to my Assemblywoman and my Governor. And I’m writing to the editorial board of my local paper. I’m taking to the streets, and banding together with people who think like I do, arguing with those who don’t, and convincing those who aren’t sure. And together we are going to bring back some common sense to the morally bankrupt fetishization of guns that we live by in this great country.
My name is Mark Damico, and I’m tired. I’m tired of wishing that you have a Merry Christmas, or Happy Hannukah, knowing that because it’s so easy for any insane or just plain angry person to get a gun that many mothers, fathers, sons and daughters will not.
My name is Mark Damico…and I’m tired.
Sat Dec 15, 2012 at 7:20 AM PT: Here's an idea. All new guns produced in this country must have 25% of the surface area PINK. I'm not a constitutional scholar, but I think that would pass muster.
Sat Dec 15, 2012 at 7:24 AM PT: Thanks for the recs. Now let's DO something about it. It's time for the NRA to stop whining about common sense gun control, put on their big boy pants and help solve a problem in which they are just as culpable as we are.
Sat Dec 15, 2012 at 7:25 AM PT: