I hate doing this. I hate having to write about this, again.
But here we are, once again. This time, Parkland, Florida. This time, 17 dead. This time, students of the school predicted it. This time, on one of the safer cities in the state. This time, using similar guns used in other recent mass shootings including those in California and Nevada. And this time, once again, a gun control debate brewing from underneath the carnage and blood. One side is begging to change the guns laws, the other side firmly believes it is pointless. Truth is, I have been screaming this for a decade and a half and the longer I live in the United States, the more it looks like until the entire culture can change, the guns laws will forever remain the same.
Let’s start with my basic beliefs: everyone has the right to own a gun, but there should be heavy background checks, there should be an extensive education program concerning firearms, there should be continuous checkups, people on the no-fly or mentally ill list should not own one unless they can pass a trial by jury, and assault rifles as well as enhancements created to turn guns into automatics should be completely banned. Let me go a step further, once a week select police stations across the country should be allowed to accept guns of ANY kind from ANYBODY without any questions asked and without IDing the person turning in the weapons so at least we have fewer unwanted weapons out in the streets. It really isn’t that hard: you can own a gun, you just have to pass all the checkmarks and you cannot own anything that can launch dozens of bullets per second----there is no reason whatsoever to own one of these.
Yet, this is the United States of America. This country has always been a unique one for a variety of ways but one of its standout personality traits is its glorification and celebration of violence while being quite taboo on the subject of sex. It makes sense though, after all America was founded on violence (Revolution), became large and powerful because of violence (Manifest Destiny, Wild, Wild West), was nearly torn apart because of cultural shifts which led to violence (Civil War), and became a mighty superpower as well as part of the global police because of violence (World War 1 and 2). America was always ahead of the pack with weaponry, and it’s been this way since the Civil War. Battles between the Union and the Confederacy were also spectator sports, and then today the most popular sport by far is American football----which has a setup similar to a war in terms of battling for territory. It’s in the DNA, it’s in the American bloodstreams.
The NRA controls the pockets of most of the politicians, as Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and even George W. Bush were battling for stricter gun laws but were met with tons of resistance. Even Bush’s father left the NRA because he believed they became too ridiculous. So no, this isn’t a political debate, this dwells deeper than who is president. But the NRA can’t remain powerful and a silent force without the help of millions that refuse to see the other side of the coin concerning gun control. The other side refuses to see countries like England, Australia, Norway, Canada, and Japan improve public safety with their gun restrictions and regulations. They refuse to see the statistics of the mammoth rise in mass gun violence, instead pointing to the decrease in overall violence in recent years. You can’t change what refuses to change.
I can dwell deeper into numbers but you already know them. I can toss in more statistics about America’s top dog placement in mass shootings and school violence but you already have seen them. There is way too much information that suggests that something, anything needs to be done to at the very least cut the bleeding, but if you have been against gun control from the start and you weren’t rattled by the shootings in nightclubs, concerts, schools, and churches, I doubt I can sway you at this damn point. At this point, you are being ignorant to the issue if you believe that nothing can be done. And even if the results remain the same, at the very least trying to make changes is enough of an improvement over the inactivity of recent years.
Let me remind all of you, Obama pretty much predicted the Pulse shooting during a PBS roundtable discussion about gun control---he knew of people visiting ISIS websites, was able to ensure that they can’t fly, but can STILL purchase a gun. How, in, the, hell, is, that, okay??? This was back in 2016, Pulse happened, and STILL nothing was able to be done. We had the Vegas shooter buy up enough guns and ammo to house a small army, and that STILL wasn’t enough. Now we have a man potentially “diagnosed with Autism” (which to me remains a smokescreen) that owned an AK even after constant threats and calls from the police, and we STILL disagree on background checks and gun control. There’s no stone left to turn in terms of trying to convince half of America on this, their minds are set and no matter how many shootings we have in 2018 (which by the way we are nearly averaging a mass shooting per day), they don’t want to see the restrictions in place. After Columbine, you could make the argument. After Parkland, there really is no excuse.
But its in the American culture, its in the bloodline. Guns have been imprinted in American history, American culture, American traditions, and American values. It is the second amendment, and there’s nothing we can do to change the outdated laws until the culture is warped, until the mindset of an entire nation that glorifies the almighty bullet can finally adjust to the problems clearly at hand. I do not blame the Parkland shooting itself on a specific president, on an administration, or a government, but I do blame them for not doing enough and not at least trying to start the conversation---especially this current administration for removing restrictions that would prevent the mentally ill from buying a gun.
As a mere citizen, I don’t have all the answers, I don’t have all the solutions. But at the same time I don’t have the access to information the government has, nor do I have the ability to implement the changes necessary. But we need to change, period. And the longer we prolong this obviously necessary change, the more it shows how ignorant this country has truly become.
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