I’ve been spending the day studying for finals and trying not to let myself get pulled into news today. The thing is. You see. The thing is. Guns and ownership have transcended the point of organized militias (read the goddamned 2nd amendment already) and everyday survival where you didn’t eat unless you hunted too. It is now squarely a public health problem. None of the statistics done by someone not the NRA are with you. Gun control is an actual needed thing. All the rhetoric of ‘guns don’t kill people’ and ‘they were mentally ill!’ is simply building a straw man to divert the talk about an industry that makes millions of dollars every year on a very large pile of bodies. Guns the objects don’t kill people, but not strictly regulating how they’re sold and blaming it on mental health (a problem we’re almost as likely to actually look at as gun control) does. We have to actually take a look at all the elements that have gone into making gun violence one of the top 10 causes of death in Black and Hispanic communities, so common on school campuses that today’s counts as number 74 since Dec 2012 at Sandyhook, that makes the US (the top country in number of firearms per 100 ppl) the top country for firearm deaths (followed by Uruguay w/ fewer guns per 100 ppl; other top gun owning countries barely register any deaths). Clearly, giving everyone a gun isn’t working.
People have a right to feel safe. If I have to have a gun to protect myself from all the other gun having people, of which any one of them could decide to use their weapon (it’s not a cheese grater you guys so cut out the ‘it’s *just* a tool’ bullshit) on me because they’re having a bad day/don’t feel respected/haven’t gotten laid/didn’t say ‘hi’ back, that’s not safety. That’s fear. Living my life in fear is not my idea of a pursuing happiness. So don’t come at me today, don’t try to get me to see the ‘other side’. The group dominantly speaking about the ‘other side’ blames games and antidepressants and mental illness for the fact that shootings kill thousands, THOUSANDS, every year. When another shooting happens and people start rumbling about gun control, it’s spun as stepping on freedoms and all the fault of violent criminals and violence in the media and the mentally ill. You know whose freedoms are being really stepped on? People shot by assholes. People who die. Those people deserved better than rantings about a right we very clearly are abusing. If we want to keep this right, we better be willing to talk about ways to have it without depriving others of their lives. Nobody has a right to a body count.
Mad Maniacal Musings 