Fed Up with the Gun Debate

First, Happy New Year to Everyone! Second, a busy holiday season followed by preparing for a company audit (we passed) are my excuses for a shamefully long absence. Third, I’m sick to death of this gun debate, prompting my jump right back into blog waters. Fair warning, this is probably going to be a rambly rant.

The CT school shootings were horrific, which definitely took the 2nd Amendment off the back burner. I remember during the debates, gun control was not really addressed other than the usual, “make sure kids have a good childhood so they don’t turn into the Columbine monsters.”

The NRA has completely disgusted me. After the massacre, they wait days to give a statement, and when they did, their solution was all schools should have armed rent-a-cops. Because having them really helped in the Columbine shooting.

Bragging about their paid memberships increasing exponentially after the shootings pissed me off to no end. What kind of organization does that? Nothing like 20 dead kids to up your numbers. Ugh.

Vice President Biden meets with anyone and everyone related to guns and violence and comes up with recommendations. On the 16th, he took 23 of those recommendations and turned them into Executive Orders. For some reason, I get Conservative newsletters and alerts even though I’ve e-mailed them, saying that I’m a bleeding heart Liberal. Let’s see. In the past two days, I’ve read, “Impeach Him” (yawn) and “Congress must act to counter every single one of these orders! They have the power to do it, and they must take action.”

Every single one? Even this one?

18. Provide incentives for schools to hire school resource officers.

Wasn’t that what the NRA was calling for? Damn that Commie Obama for giving us what we wanted.

The whole debate has gotten ridiculous, really. I have heard it all. From hard core gun nuts who say NO background checks to banning all weapons. Maybe we can have some sensible solutions? Like tougher background checks? Closing that gun show loophole would be great too. I still don’t understand how Joe Crazy can walk right into a show in many states and purchase an AR-15 without any kind of background check. Here in CA, there are background checks when you buy from a gun show. You purchase from the dealer and go through the background check. When you pass, you pick up your weapon from the transfer dealer who has been holding it until you pass. That should be in all states.

The assault weapons ban. Senator Dianne Feinstein is leading this campaign, as she did when assault weapons were banned in 1994. So, to the NRA, she is Satan incarnate. It makes me ask the question. Who really needs an assault weapon? A handgun or shotgun would suffice if Stranger Danger comes into your house. Do you really need something that will literally blow their head to bits? Dead is dead.

And the high capacity magazines. Again, do you really need a 100RD magazine when one bullet is all you need to kill a deer. Max 3 if you’re a bad shot. Limiting the capacity you can buy would be one way to go.

One of the things that I wish the gun lobby, gun nuts, and Conservatives would drop is the “tyrannous” government argument. Where were you when the Patriot Act was signed into law by Bush? And extended by Obama? I should have seen well-regulated militias storming the capital. Did they sleep in? Were they too inept to send an e-mail blast, “Our rights are about to be eroded. Grab your guns and meet at the steps of the capital. Donuts and coffee will be provided.” Either they don’t really care about a tyrannous government, or their militias really suck. Or a combination of both.

Anyway, I’m pretty much fed up with the whole thing at this point. Will real change happen now? I’d like to believe so, but I am a realist. The NRA has a financial choke hold on Congress, and a large group of voters will keep the pressure on to keep gun laws as they are. Nothing screams American machismo more than assault rifles with magazines stuffed with as many hollow point bullets it can hold. Go big or go home, baby.

Of course, on a more personal level, if that Commie Imam King Barack Hussein Obama tries to take away my shoulder-fired surface-to-air missile, he’ll have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

On the CT School Shooting

Friday was so strange. It started off terrible. I was knee deep in work issues, and I get e-mails from my sister and partner. “So sad what happened in CT” and “All those kids in CT.” Huh? I was dealing with work stuff, so I didn’t hear. Then, I read about the tragedy. 20 children and 7 adults killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown CT, by a gunman who then killed himself. Ugh. Wasn’t there just a shooting in an Oregon mall?

God help us. What can we do to stop this? I’ve heard it all over the weekend. Conservatives, like Representative Louie Gohmert of TX, have said that more guns are the answer. He told Chris Wallace of Fox News,

“Chris, I wish to God she had had an m-4 in her office, locked up so when she heard gunfire, she pulls it out … and takes him out and takes his head off before he can kill those precious kids”

Liberals, like Michael Moore tweeted:

“The short term solution? A law immediately banning semi-automatic weapons & mega-clips. Must have license to own gun. Must pass mental exam.”

Honestly, I don’t know what the answer is. If the Principal was armed, it doesn’t mean that she could have taken him out. And if we ban semis and mega clips, it doesn’t mean they won’t be sold. I see a very profitable black market emerging.

All I know is that the whole thing depresses me. I worked as a sub, and I remember doing those lockdown drills. You lock the door, turn off all the lights, and close the blinds or draw the drapes. It was all very creepy. You just pray you never have to do it for real.

My mind doesn’t want to go to these dark places anymore. It’s really making me hope the Mayans were right. I think the entire world needs purging, and Friday sounds like a great day to do it.