Call Me Crazy

Yet another "national discussion" about guns is under way here, and it's so anti-rational, so politically cowardly, so …unbearably stupid that you have to wonder how a nation that has enlightened the world in so many other ways could wallow in this kind of delusion.
-Neil Macdonald

Like everyone in America, I'm in the midst of last minute holiday preparations, and trying desperately to process last Friday's school shooting in Connecticut.  

In recent days, I've stated to many people that, despite the reprehensible amount of gun violence that has taken place in this country in recent years, I have never entertained the idea that my kids are not safe when they're at school.  I guess it's the fact that many of those lives so unjustly cut short were so close in age to my own children, but this particular incident has left me with a feeling of vulnerability which I am not used to.  I am facing the reality that my kids, in fact, are not safe at school.  It's a hard pill for this mom to swallow.  

The harder pill for me to swallow, though, is the notion I'm repeatedly hearing that nothing can or should be done.  
It's not a gun issue, it's a mental health issue.
It's not a gun problem, it's a people problem.
I have constitutional rights... including owning an assault weapon.

I fully submit that what happened on Friday is a whole big can of messed up, made of more ingredients than I could shake a stick at.  

But...

While I would concede that perhaps it is true that stronger gun control laws would not have prevented this tragedy, you cannot convince me that it would not at least be worth a try.  Are we as a country really content to just throw our hands in the air and give up?  I know the argument.  'Crazy people are going to get their hands on guns no matter what the law says.'  True.  Just like people are going to commit murder, drive drunk, and commit countless other heinous acts that are against the law.  I would submit that it's still a good idea to have laws against those things in place.  No, they won't prevent all crime, but the law says that we as a country are not ok with this.  

Call me crazy, but I think it's time for us to say we as a country are not ok with mass killings.  Call me crazy, but I think my kids, and all the other school age kids, movie goers, mall shoppers, and other unarmed members of society, are worth trying to protect.  I think they're worth passing a law for... even if it won't work.  At least it would say that we as a society are NOT OK WITH THIS.  I love this country, and I think we're better than this.  I am sad.  I am frustrated.  I am emotional and admittedly not completely rational right now.  But my irrationality's got nothing on current gun culture in this country right now.  I guess I am selfish, because I just don't see how the right to bear arms 'designed for war, firing ultra-destructive bullets that travel at 3000 feet per second, designed to destroy human life as efficiently as possible, causing maximum internal damage' trumps my kids' rights to a long healthy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.