I should turn my attention away from my own comfortable life for a second. There are events that happen around the world every day that seemingly have no effect on my own life or my good fortune. This is not entirely true, though. An event that might seem to be isolated may have lasting effects that are felt by everybody eventually. The events that stick in my mind right now are rather tragic and cannot be avoided if you are connected to
world news in any sort of way.
Just two days ago there was a heinous act commited in
the US state of Connecticut. Young, and I do mean YOUNG school children were gunned down by a psychopath along with some of their teachers. Regretfully, I envisioned the political arguments that would arise from such an event before I even had time to think of the pain their families will never be able to ease or the dreams that were destroyed before they were even dreams. In short time my fears proved correct. My own US president was on camera before an entire world audience making hints at turning this tragedy political. Before I continue I just want to make known that I can never follow a leader who cannot stand strong in the face of adversity. While an event like this can certainly conjure many emotions we never knew we had, to see a powerful man who represents many people's ideas of strength, hope, and change pretend to cry in front of the entire world makes me fear that he will tuck tail and run when confronted with the difficult situations that the voters of the
United States have thrown all their trust into him to confront. It is completely revolting and distasteful that we turn every event into a political debate. I am just as guilty as anybody.
Now come the voices of the many. The gun rights battle wages on in the
United States. Many who hold support for stricter laws and some who support a downright ban on
firearms. There is also an opposing side who support the idea of no such laws or bans. While it easy to get caught up in the emotion following tragedy to support strictness and banning
firearms in hopes that further tragedies might not take place, I find this idea to be very simplistic and short-sighted. Even ignorant and proving that history surely can repeat itself.
I will not give a history lesson here because I am no scholar. But, let's just look at the logistics of a
gun ban in the United States. Private citizens of the US currently hold more firearms than the US military. And, those are just the "licensed" and "trackable" firearms. How would these firearms be collected? Would the owners be compensated for the firearms to be turned in? If not, that's just theft. Now, compensation for every product in the history of the world is an agreed upon price between the buyer and the seller. Keep that in mind.
Let's just say that the United States figured all that out and every citizen was honest and handed over every
firearm that was requested. That's assuming that the firearm was not sold privately with no tracking ability whatsoever. Explosives are not new nor are they a secret recipe held by some shaman sitting on the top of
Mt Everest. I can foresee that honest citizen who actually turned in their firearm (assuming criminals don't care about laws; most people don't unless they're caught breaking one) would be making their own firearms and bullets. So, some have suggested forgetting the ban on firearms and limiting the number of bullets allowed at one time. Again, this would turn into private bullet making. Look at alcohol and drug bans. Let's revisit a law of physics for a second. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. So, on the surface making the guns or bullets disappear seems like it could stop the mass shootings. But, humanity hasn't come as far as it has by not being innovative. No, instead with the forced hidden bullet and firearm making would come innovation. Do we really need innovation in ballistics from vindictive "freedom fighters"?
Putting all that aside, along with history, into our basket of "what the fuck are you thinking?", let's stop and take a look outside the United States. There are plenty of gun bans in plenty of countries around the world that have not proven themselves useful. It takes a very evil person to harm children and if that evil is persistent, it will find it's own innovation. We only need to look to
China in the last three years and the number of school stabbings. My suggestion is to pay attention to more than your own little world.
One surprising thing that was spoken after this incident is the line that this would not have happened if prayer was allowed in school. I can't even begin to comprehend the stupidity behind a statement like that. I could debate anybody all day about a person's natural born right to believe or not believe and what role it should or shouldn't play in public, but a statement like that is profoundly idiotic. Statements like that come from self proclaimed
Christians who think that because they label themselves as such that they are somehow superior to those who don't share the same beliefs or those who know that such labels don't mean shit. I don't want to debate
Religion/Non-Religion here. Religion has no place in any conversation except for religious ones. I will not speak of my own beliefs here, either. I will say that I have read and almost have a beginners understanding of the Bible and many other religious texts. This statement by so-called Christians is the most
anti-Christian statement I could ever hear. It is a direct challenge to
God. You are entertaining the idea that God is fallable. You are also leading me to believe that God would somehow forget and cast aside children who are not led to pray in school. If you had any idea about what you claim to know, you would remember it was this very same talk that got
Satan cast out of heaven. Don't be so self-righteous.
Just two days ago there was a heinous act commited in the US state of Connecticut. Young, and I do mean YOUNG school children were gunned down by a psychopath along with some of their teachers. Regretfully, I envisioned the political arguments that would arise from such an event before I even had time to think of the pain their families will never be able to ease or the dreams that were destroyed before they were even dreams. In short time my fears proved correct. My own US president was on camera before an entire world audience making hints at turning this tragedy political. Before I continue I just want to make known that I can never follow a leader who cannot stand strong in the face of adversity. While an event like this can certainly conjure many emotions we never knew we had, to see a powerful man who represents many people's ideas of strength, hope, and change pretend to cry in front of the entire world makes me fear that he will tuck tail and run when confronted with the difficult situations that the voters of the United States have thrown all their trust into him to confront. It is completely revolting and distasteful that we turn every event into a political debate. I am just as guilty as anybody.
Let's just say that the United States figured all that out and every citizen was honest and handed over every firearm that was requested. That's assuming that the firearm was not sold privately with no tracking ability whatsoever. Explosives are not new nor are they a secret recipe held by some shaman sitting on the top of Mt Everest. I can foresee that honest citizen who actually turned in their firearm (assuming criminals don't care about laws; most people don't unless they're caught breaking one) would be making their own firearms and bullets. So, some have suggested forgetting the ban on firearms and limiting the number of bullets allowed at one time. Again, this would turn into private bullet making. Look at alcohol and drug bans. Let's revisit a law of physics for a second. Every action has an opposite and equal reaction. So, on the surface making the guns or bullets disappear seems like it could stop the mass shootings. But, humanity hasn't come as far as it has by not being innovative. No, instead with the forced hidden bullet and firearm making would come innovation. Do we really need innovation in ballistics from vindictive "freedom fighters"?
One surprising thing that was spoken after this incident is the line that this would not have happened if prayer was allowed in school. I can't even begin to comprehend the stupidity behind a statement like that. I could debate anybody all day about a person's natural born right to believe or not believe and what role it should or shouldn't play in public, but a statement like that is profoundly idiotic. Statements like that come from self proclaimed Christians who think that because they label themselves as such that they are somehow superior to those who don't share the same beliefs or those who know that such labels don't mean shit. I don't want to debate Religion/Non-Religion here. Religion has no place in any conversation except for religious ones. I will not speak of my own beliefs here, either. I will say that I have read and almost have a beginners understanding of the Bible and many other religious texts. This statement by so-called Christians is the most anti-Christian statement I could ever hear. It is a direct challenge to God. You are entertaining the idea that God is fallable. You are also leading me to believe that God would somehow forget and cast aside children who are not led to pray in school. If you had any idea about what you claim to know, you would remember it was this very same talk that got Satan cast out of heaven. Don't be so self-righteous.
This brings me to the issue of seemingly isolated events. I hear many people, including friends say that they don't care about politics. None of this has anything to do with their lives. The ancient Greek politician Pericles is oftened credited to have said: "Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn't mean politics won't take an interest in you" and “The
whole earth is the tomb of heroic men and their story is not given only
on stone over their clay but abides everywhere without visible symbol
woven into the stuff of other mens lives.” Think about those words the next time you feel you don't need to care.
