So trending on Facebook tonight is the tragic story of an eight year old boy who was playing with a handgun and who shot and killed himself by accident. His brother tried to administer CPR, but he still passed away. How many more stories do we have to read? How many more times does someone have to die a completely preventable death? How many more families have to grieve their children, parents, siblings?
People love to bring up the second amendment when we talk about regulating guns, or 'gun control.' I hate that second phrasing now only because it implies we want to reach further than most sensible people actually want. I want firearms to be regulated, which is exactly what the amendment says.
"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the
security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms,
shall not be infringed."
First of all, apply some historical context to this. We had just won a bloody war against a country that wanted to keep us as property and not give us equal treatment like other citizens of the empire. Our weapons were muskets, which fired one round at a time and had to be loaded each time with the propellant. Not exactly the standard in handguns we have now, let alone semi-automatic weapons and extended clips. We wanted to make sure we could protect ourselves from tyranny in the future.
(Side note: The third amendment protects us from housing soldiers in our houses during times of peace. This is ridiculous and would not ever happen now. Still, it exists and would be upheld should the super unlikely ever happen. My point? Our times have changed dramatically since 1789. The constitution was meant to be a living document hence the judicial branch of our government. Moving on.)
Back to the regulation part. Before I could legally drive, I had to obtain a learner's permit and hold it for six months. I had to take at least three lessons behind the wheel through an approved school. I had to pass a test just to get the permit. Then I had to take a behind-the-wheel exam to get my license. Sure, I could have skipped all of that and drove illegally, but I didn't. I know many people still do it, but we have tried to prevent this with regulatory laws. We have less restrictions on guns in far too many states.
Yes, people are always going to do things that are against the law. So then why do we have laws at all? Because we are a civilized society (or so I thought) who values the social compact we make with each other. (Same thing goes for vaccination, but that is a whole other ugly monster to tackle later.)
They wanted to get rid of alcohol in the 1920s via prohibition. That worked out so well that we repealed it thirteen years later. We've done the same to drugs, and that has created a bloated prison population with people in need of treatment rather than punishment. (But there's no money in that, is there, private prison industry?) Same thing goes with abortion, which sadly is more regulated than who can buy a firearm. Outlawing stuff we don't like doesn't make it go away, but regulating things makes sure that, for the most part, it is safer for us as a society.
So how many more have to die before we let go of our egos that guns make us better, safer, more important than other peoples' right to live?
How many?
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Showing posts with label guns. Show all posts
Friday, July 15, 2016
Saturday, June 25, 2016
In Which I Go On a Long-Winded Rant
(Bear with me. I'm kind of just going to go with my stream-of-consciousnsess so it'll probably wander.)
I don't blog much anymore because life has been keeping me fairly busy. Around the time I stopped posting semi-regularly, I got into graduate school and a teacher credential program. I was once again consumed with being a full-time student who was basically working for free, and that was seriously the hardest thing I ever had to do. Then I got my first teaching position, and THAT was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Now I sit here, one week into my summer break after an amazing year with some amazing people and kids, spending my time on BuzzFeed, YouTube, Tumblr, or writing in my Pokemon fanfiction. I eagerly await my camping trip in a month and know I will at some point have to start preparing for the next school year since we go back in early August.
But there is something else I feel I need to write. In my work, I've added a little bit of political backstory that is sort of a caricature of what is going on in our actual reality. Because what is going on is freaking ridiculous. We have as a frontrunner for president a man who has alienated nearly every group of people in this country aside from rich white people or the poor, uneducated ones who fear anything different than them. The world literally laughs at us. What is more frightening is the fact that, up until recently, he was standing a good chance of winning because Bernie-or-Bust assholes believe the lies spoonfed to them about "Shillary" (it's not even an imaginative insult, ffs). Some are coming over, even though he still hasn't ceded the race (get out already, old man). If anyone thinks for one second that Clinton is as bad as or worse than Trump, then you are mistaken. Voting for a third party in system such as ours (where, at the district level, we award votes in a winner-take-all fashion) is pointless. Sorry, Libertarians and Independents, but that's just how it is for now. If you waste your vote on a third party, refuse to vote, or write in Bernie Sanders, then you are ignorant and deserve what you get. Unfortunately, you assholes will take everyone else with you.
Brexit has shown us in quick fashion how dangerous this reactionary, "fuck the government and immigrants" nonsense is. It doesn't just affect them, either. Whether people like it or not, we live in a global society. The USA already tried isolationism once after the first World War. When Germany started conquering Europe and killing people, we shrugged and stayed out of it until it finally hit close enough to home. Sadly, war is what helped finish pulling us out of the Great Depression, which was brought on in part by the similar deregulatory practices of our current times. We don't call it the Great Recession to be cute. Speaking of WWII, part of Hitler's successful rhetoric was to blame various groups (Jews, gays/lesbians, immigrants) for the country's woes. One of the best professors I had in university taught me the important lesson that everyone but my generation especially needs to be able to recognize those sentiments. When you dehumanize a group, you can blame them for everything and do anything to them. Due to the destabilizing of the Middle East (thanks, Bush and friends!), immigrants have been flooding into parts of Europe. Racism and bigotry was definitely a reason many voted to leave the EU. What do you think is coming out of the mouths of so many Republican politicians here at home? Ban Muslims. And people are literally throwing their fists into the air in agreement with this. Trump supporters scare me almost as much as the man himself becoming president.
While this didn't start off to be a political rant of that sort, but it does lead me into the point I was going to make. Those same talking heads warning us about the dangers of Islamic terrorism also want to make sure those same theoretical boogiemen can obtain weapons of mass destruction. I'm not meaning the ones Bush went to Iraq for (really it was just oil)- I mean the kind that really exist and can mow down a crowd in under a minute. Perhaps mass is a little extreme, but guns are a larger threat to this country than plutonium bombs and terrorists, and yet because they are enshrined in our constitution as a right, no one wants to do anything about it. (Although I applaud the Democrats for finally doing something in the House, even if the ruling party gave them the figurative finger, voted on something else, and adjourned for a two-week vacation.) When children were gunned down and nothing changed, I knew nothing ever would. Two terrorists even shot up a holiday party in my city, and all I did was shrug. I hate to admit it, but I shrugged over Orlando, too. It has just gotten so frustrating that these things happen on a regular basis and that all of the outrage and loss from people across the nation falls on ears deafened by the NRA.
Naturally, the pro-gun people (affectionately termed 'ammosexuals') came out right away, blaming terrorism because he was a Muslim. No, it wasn't his likely mental illness or the fact (now questionable, I guess?) that he was a closeted gay man who probably hated himself to a degree. (I blame his religious and intolerant father for this one.) This case I feel is a cross-section between the larger discussion on tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and more effective treatment of and education on mental illness. I don't believe he even knew what he was talking about when he pledged to ISIS. Sadly, the LGBTQ+ community is already marginalized by the politicians saying guns = good. They are also stoking fear of the Muslim community, again.
I even read this one comment on a BF article (a powerful video about growing up a Millenial under the shadow of mass shootings) that partially inspired me to rant tonight. She said the one thing these shooters have in common is that they have been on SSRIs and other drugs for various mental illnesses. I'm, like, duh? Unstable people do unpredictable things? I thought that was obvious? That's why they're on drugs, so they can function. Here's where it turned. She blamed the DRUGS for making them unstable and for messing with their mind. She proceeded to rant about Big Pharma and the chemicals in our food (a sad testament to the lack of science education in our country...everything is a chemical., anything can kill you in the right amounts, and poor people in the developing world don't have the privilege to reject non-organic, non-GMO food because they're too busy starving). As someone who has a brother living with bipolar disorder, I know firsthand what not treating that disease looks like. He hasn't been on his meds in months, and some days I really have some horrible thoughts about what should happen to him to get him out of my life. (Sidenote: I also likely have some form of anxiety disorder and should get it checked, but I am total hypocrite on this right now, I freely admit.) When used properly, these drugs save lives and let people function, have jobs, and even have families. If the Church of Scientology agrees with your opinion, that should be a red flag that you are WRONG.
I was watching a YT video where Piers Morgan was interviewing a pro-gun supporter on GM Britain. Somehow, the conversation devolved into comparing guns to Kinder Eggs. (We had something similar here called the Nestle Surprise, but they disappeared a while ago.) Those eggs are banned here because they pose a choking hazard to children. I thought, 'So if we can ban candy, why can't we have reasonable restriction on guns?' That's basically what Piers was trying to get at. The asshat actually said that choking is a common cause of death for children and avoided Piers' question totally. Then he brought out how many deaths a year from gun violence are suicides. This is sadly true. People who are at the darkest of dark places and want to end it all will find a way to do it. But guns make that much easier. There is also much less of chance to screw up. Guns are more permanent. Just yesterday a mom in Texas snapped for whatever reason and killed both her daughters. People started arguing in the comments about how she could have stabbed them to death so let's ban all knives!!!11! They also brought up that mass stabbing in China in 2014 (there were multiple stabbers, though, and it was not as deadly if divide the 33 deaths by the 4 men). Plus stabbing someone involves getting their blood on your body, feeling the metal pierce their flesh and fat and organs. It's more personal and thus harder. Pulling a trigger is way easier.
Last point: we regulate female reproductive organs more strictly than we do guns. Same goes for birth control, which leads to fewer abortions. I thought that was the goal but guess I am wrong? (I read the story of a couple whose child would not survive and had to go through hell thanks to the 20-week ban in Texas. So sad and so maddening.)
So...here I am, at the end of my thought train. I feel mentally tired after all of this, but it also feels good to get it out there in written form. Now, someone might ask me what am I going to do about any of these things? And the answer is I don't know. It feels like nothing can be done, which may sound like the so-called typical millenial apathy my generation is famous for. We rant all we want on Tumblr and Facebook but don't actually get stuff done (one reason why the Occupy Movement fell flat).
I want to be able to change the world. I want a place where people love who they love and we can click 'like' FB wedding announcements equally. I want a place where people aren't afraid of science so we can use it to grow food sustainably for more people, so we can understand, prevent, and cure disease. I want a place where everyone can worship their god/s and I don't have to hide my atheism from anyone. (I'm not militant, I promise. Those people are assholes.)
There is so much I want for this world, and I could go on and on for a while. What I want doesn't matter because it isn't a reality. But it can be. Right now, the best place I can be is teaching the next generation. If anyone is going to get things done, it's them. My generation screwed it up. Or maybe we're all just fed up with the huge debt of student loans and credit cards, a menial job even with a Bachelor's, the unobtainable goal of owning property, of the crushing reality that we'll have to work forever before we retire and that SS may not be there, that healthcare is still largely unaffordable. Worst of all, when we bring these concerns up, we're mocked by the generation that led us down this path. That is a rant for another time, though (maybe).
For the most immediate future, though, I'm going to write some more in my Pokemon fanfic, listen to my playlist, and get lost in a world I can control.
Peace.
I don't blog much anymore because life has been keeping me fairly busy. Around the time I stopped posting semi-regularly, I got into graduate school and a teacher credential program. I was once again consumed with being a full-time student who was basically working for free, and that was seriously the hardest thing I ever had to do. Then I got my first teaching position, and THAT was the hardest thing I've ever had to do.
Now I sit here, one week into my summer break after an amazing year with some amazing people and kids, spending my time on BuzzFeed, YouTube, Tumblr, or writing in my Pokemon fanfiction. I eagerly await my camping trip in a month and know I will at some point have to start preparing for the next school year since we go back in early August.
But there is something else I feel I need to write. In my work, I've added a little bit of political backstory that is sort of a caricature of what is going on in our actual reality. Because what is going on is freaking ridiculous. We have as a frontrunner for president a man who has alienated nearly every group of people in this country aside from rich white people or the poor, uneducated ones who fear anything different than them. The world literally laughs at us. What is more frightening is the fact that, up until recently, he was standing a good chance of winning because Bernie-or-Bust assholes believe the lies spoonfed to them about "Shillary" (it's not even an imaginative insult, ffs). Some are coming over, even though he still hasn't ceded the race (get out already, old man). If anyone thinks for one second that Clinton is as bad as or worse than Trump, then you are mistaken. Voting for a third party in system such as ours (where, at the district level, we award votes in a winner-take-all fashion) is pointless. Sorry, Libertarians and Independents, but that's just how it is for now. If you waste your vote on a third party, refuse to vote, or write in Bernie Sanders, then you are ignorant and deserve what you get. Unfortunately, you assholes will take everyone else with you.
Brexit has shown us in quick fashion how dangerous this reactionary, "fuck the government and immigrants" nonsense is. It doesn't just affect them, either. Whether people like it or not, we live in a global society. The USA already tried isolationism once after the first World War. When Germany started conquering Europe and killing people, we shrugged and stayed out of it until it finally hit close enough to home. Sadly, war is what helped finish pulling us out of the Great Depression, which was brought on in part by the similar deregulatory practices of our current times. We don't call it the Great Recession to be cute. Speaking of WWII, part of Hitler's successful rhetoric was to blame various groups (Jews, gays/lesbians, immigrants) for the country's woes. One of the best professors I had in university taught me the important lesson that everyone but my generation especially needs to be able to recognize those sentiments. When you dehumanize a group, you can blame them for everything and do anything to them. Due to the destabilizing of the Middle East (thanks, Bush and friends!), immigrants have been flooding into parts of Europe. Racism and bigotry was definitely a reason many voted to leave the EU. What do you think is coming out of the mouths of so many Republican politicians here at home? Ban Muslims. And people are literally throwing their fists into the air in agreement with this. Trump supporters scare me almost as much as the man himself becoming president.
While this didn't start off to be a political rant of that sort, but it does lead me into the point I was going to make. Those same talking heads warning us about the dangers of Islamic terrorism also want to make sure those same theoretical boogiemen can obtain weapons of mass destruction. I'm not meaning the ones Bush went to Iraq for (really it was just oil)- I mean the kind that really exist and can mow down a crowd in under a minute. Perhaps mass is a little extreme, but guns are a larger threat to this country than plutonium bombs and terrorists, and yet because they are enshrined in our constitution as a right, no one wants to do anything about it. (Although I applaud the Democrats for finally doing something in the House, even if the ruling party gave them the figurative finger, voted on something else, and adjourned for a two-week vacation.) When children were gunned down and nothing changed, I knew nothing ever would. Two terrorists even shot up a holiday party in my city, and all I did was shrug. I hate to admit it, but I shrugged over Orlando, too. It has just gotten so frustrating that these things happen on a regular basis and that all of the outrage and loss from people across the nation falls on ears deafened by the NRA.
Naturally, the pro-gun people (affectionately termed 'ammosexuals') came out right away, blaming terrorism because he was a Muslim. No, it wasn't his likely mental illness or the fact (now questionable, I guess?) that he was a closeted gay man who probably hated himself to a degree. (I blame his religious and intolerant father for this one.) This case I feel is a cross-section between the larger discussion on tolerance and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community and more effective treatment of and education on mental illness. I don't believe he even knew what he was talking about when he pledged to ISIS. Sadly, the LGBTQ+ community is already marginalized by the politicians saying guns = good. They are also stoking fear of the Muslim community, again.
I even read this one comment on a BF article (a powerful video about growing up a Millenial under the shadow of mass shootings) that partially inspired me to rant tonight. She said the one thing these shooters have in common is that they have been on SSRIs and other drugs for various mental illnesses. I'm, like, duh? Unstable people do unpredictable things? I thought that was obvious? That's why they're on drugs, so they can function. Here's where it turned. She blamed the DRUGS for making them unstable and for messing with their mind. She proceeded to rant about Big Pharma and the chemicals in our food (a sad testament to the lack of science education in our country...everything is a chemical., anything can kill you in the right amounts, and poor people in the developing world don't have the privilege to reject non-organic, non-GMO food because they're too busy starving). As someone who has a brother living with bipolar disorder, I know firsthand what not treating that disease looks like. He hasn't been on his meds in months, and some days I really have some horrible thoughts about what should happen to him to get him out of my life. (Sidenote: I also likely have some form of anxiety disorder and should get it checked, but I am total hypocrite on this right now, I freely admit.) When used properly, these drugs save lives and let people function, have jobs, and even have families. If the Church of Scientology agrees with your opinion, that should be a red flag that you are WRONG.
I was watching a YT video where Piers Morgan was interviewing a pro-gun supporter on GM Britain. Somehow, the conversation devolved into comparing guns to Kinder Eggs. (We had something similar here called the Nestle Surprise, but they disappeared a while ago.) Those eggs are banned here because they pose a choking hazard to children. I thought, 'So if we can ban candy, why can't we have reasonable restriction on guns?' That's basically what Piers was trying to get at. The asshat actually said that choking is a common cause of death for children and avoided Piers' question totally. Then he brought out how many deaths a year from gun violence are suicides. This is sadly true. People who are at the darkest of dark places and want to end it all will find a way to do it. But guns make that much easier. There is also much less of chance to screw up. Guns are more permanent. Just yesterday a mom in Texas snapped for whatever reason and killed both her daughters. People started arguing in the comments about how she could have stabbed them to death so let's ban all knives!!!11! They also brought up that mass stabbing in China in 2014 (there were multiple stabbers, though, and it was not as deadly if divide the 33 deaths by the 4 men). Plus stabbing someone involves getting their blood on your body, feeling the metal pierce their flesh and fat and organs. It's more personal and thus harder. Pulling a trigger is way easier.
Last point: we regulate female reproductive organs more strictly than we do guns. Same goes for birth control, which leads to fewer abortions. I thought that was the goal but guess I am wrong? (I read the story of a couple whose child would not survive and had to go through hell thanks to the 20-week ban in Texas. So sad and so maddening.)
So...here I am, at the end of my thought train. I feel mentally tired after all of this, but it also feels good to get it out there in written form. Now, someone might ask me what am I going to do about any of these things? And the answer is I don't know. It feels like nothing can be done, which may sound like the so-called typical millenial apathy my generation is famous for. We rant all we want on Tumblr and Facebook but don't actually get stuff done (one reason why the Occupy Movement fell flat).
I want to be able to change the world. I want a place where people love who they love and we can click 'like' FB wedding announcements equally. I want a place where people aren't afraid of science so we can use it to grow food sustainably for more people, so we can understand, prevent, and cure disease. I want a place where everyone can worship their god/s and I don't have to hide my atheism from anyone. (I'm not militant, I promise. Those people are assholes.)
There is so much I want for this world, and I could go on and on for a while. What I want doesn't matter because it isn't a reality. But it can be. Right now, the best place I can be is teaching the next generation. If anyone is going to get things done, it's them. My generation screwed it up. Or maybe we're all just fed up with the huge debt of student loans and credit cards, a menial job even with a Bachelor's, the unobtainable goal of owning property, of the crushing reality that we'll have to work forever before we retire and that SS may not be there, that healthcare is still largely unaffordable. Worst of all, when we bring these concerns up, we're mocked by the generation that led us down this path. That is a rant for another time, though (maybe).
For the most immediate future, though, I'm going to write some more in my Pokemon fanfic, listen to my playlist, and get lost in a world I can control.
Peace.
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