We as a nation and many around the world are mourning the tragic school shooting that occurred in Newton, CT yesterday. There has been so much already said since then regarding tougher gun control. I have such mixed feelings about it. I grew up in a hunting family and married a military man and my children have grown up believing that the 2nd amendment guarantees them the right to bare arms. Over the years I have grown increasingly disenchanted with the conservative view toward gun control.
With the increasing number of school shootings, this recent one taking the lives of 20 innocent little children between the ages of 5 and 10, I have adopted a much more liberal view toward gun control. I do not believe for one minute the founding fathers had what we are seeing today in mind. I think it would be inconceivable to them. I can't say I know all the history around the 2nd amendment, but I believe it had more to do with the right to build militias to defend against rogue governments and less to do with any joeblow being able to possess weaponry, especially the caliber of weaponry we see in the homes of average citizens in the country today. The kind of fire power that was created to annihilate a human enemy in the fastest possible time with the most damage. We no longer need militias as we have law enforcement in place and Reserve and National Guard units all across the country. So what is the need for people to own this kind of weaponry? Many would say it is for their own personal defensive of home and family, some just for the enjoyment of collecting them and others for hunting game. As I do believe that an individual has the right to protect his home, in turn I cannot accept that a human being can get hold of a gun and take it to a public place and kill other human beings.
I am always hearing from the right, organizations like the NRA, that Americans have the right to own guns, but how many more innocent lives must be lost so they can keep their precious freedom to own a weapon? The reason we have the need for guns today for protection in the first place is that they are so easy to come by, any unstable person can get their hands on them and kill. I'm not talking about the black market here. Just about anyone with a clean record can buy a gun. Most offenders do not even have criminal records. Children are killed every year by their own hand because weapons were kept in the home.
Guns, no doubt contribute to the high crime rate in America. I am afraid it is our own desperate need to have so-called freedoms that we have created this environment. Who is to say someone is free if they are afraid to walk down a street in their own neighborhood, because of the fear of being shot? That is not freedom. This is bondage. Many of our 'freedoms' are really just an illusion. Americans may believe that this country is the greatest in the world, but how can a country be great if they are not willing to sacrifice some of those so-called freedoms to decrease crime. Many other societies throughout the world have much lower crime rates, democratic no less, and it is because they have tougher laws on guns. I am not saying they are perfect but look at the statistics. They do not lie. What do conservatives have to say about that? What is their solution for fixing what has become a very real and dire state of affairs in America. Our children are dying for God's sake...
Nirvani
With the increasing number of school shootings, this recent one taking the lives of 20 innocent little children between the ages of 5 and 10, I have adopted a much more liberal view toward gun control. I do not believe for one minute the founding fathers had what we are seeing today in mind. I think it would be inconceivable to them. I can't say I know all the history around the 2nd amendment, but I believe it had more to do with the right to build militias to defend against rogue governments and less to do with any joeblow being able to possess weaponry, especially the caliber of weaponry we see in the homes of average citizens in the country today. The kind of fire power that was created to annihilate a human enemy in the fastest possible time with the most damage. We no longer need militias as we have law enforcement in place and Reserve and National Guard units all across the country. So what is the need for people to own this kind of weaponry? Many would say it is for their own personal defensive of home and family, some just for the enjoyment of collecting them and others for hunting game. As I do believe that an individual has the right to protect his home, in turn I cannot accept that a human being can get hold of a gun and take it to a public place and kill other human beings.
I am always hearing from the right, organizations like the NRA, that Americans have the right to own guns, but how many more innocent lives must be lost so they can keep their precious freedom to own a weapon? The reason we have the need for guns today for protection in the first place is that they are so easy to come by, any unstable person can get their hands on them and kill. I'm not talking about the black market here. Just about anyone with a clean record can buy a gun. Most offenders do not even have criminal records. Children are killed every year by their own hand because weapons were kept in the home.
Guns, no doubt contribute to the high crime rate in America. I am afraid it is our own desperate need to have so-called freedoms that we have created this environment. Who is to say someone is free if they are afraid to walk down a street in their own neighborhood, because of the fear of being shot? That is not freedom. This is bondage. Many of our 'freedoms' are really just an illusion. Americans may believe that this country is the greatest in the world, but how can a country be great if they are not willing to sacrifice some of those so-called freedoms to decrease crime. Many other societies throughout the world have much lower crime rates, democratic no less, and it is because they have tougher laws on guns. I am not saying they are perfect but look at the statistics. They do not lie. What do conservatives have to say about that? What is their solution for fixing what has become a very real and dire state of affairs in America. Our children are dying for God's sake...
Nirvani
Dear Nirvani, With all due respect, it's not about gun control... We need to go deeper to the root of the issue. It's that people have become disconnected from *knowing* their Essential Self - their True Nature - their God Consciousness. We as a people have forgotten the True Beingness that we really are. It is this deep wound of separation from that knowing that is at the root of these "mental breakdowns" and acts of violence. It is the pain and heartache of living a "disconnected" life.
ReplyDeleteA friend of mine recently said: "The greatest illness is forgetting what we are. Life is about remembering who we are through the space of our innermost Being. Turn toward the Essential Stillness within you." But we don't live in a culture that honors that, that teaches us to remember our Essential Nature. I think we need to start with that...
what saddens me is that even now, people are not ready to accept the danger behind easy availability of firearms.
ReplyDeleteThere's still the same shameless if's and but's and maybe's.
I hope this incident will shake enough people to make them change gun laws. There's a lot that can be written on this topic, but common sense tells us that access to weapons that kill is a serious matter.
Please write, talk as much as you can about this and try to make people think over it.
On a side note - I consider hunting for fun cruel too. Let's have some more peace in this world ...