Guns Part II

Today I read this terrifying story that took place in Texas back in 2000. A man walked into a church looking for his wife. Finding her in the crowd he fired, missing her and hitting the older gentlemen beside her. A guy carrying a concealed weapon fired back at the man missing him and hitting a nine year old girl who later died in surgery. Three people were shot that morning, resulting in one death that should have never happened.

This post we are back to guns. Guns are such a hot issue in which I am so fed up with hearing.

But for a brilliant surgical team and two centimeters of a miracle, the death toll didn’t go to two.  From bullets fired from a gun bought legally. He bought guns, he loaded them, he drove from his home to the church, and until he pulled the trigger he had yet to commit a crime. I am so off-the-charts tired of the gun lobby tossing around words like ‘personal freedom’ and no one calling them on it. It’s not about personal freedom, and it certainly has nothing to do with public safety. It’s just that some people like guns.

You know, a decade ago, we passed a few national gun control laws, and the gun lobby turned its back on Congress and started focusing on the states. The NRA systematically worked the legislatures to weaken conceal-and-carry laws, the effect of which is to increase gun sales and pad its own membership.

This guy, the second shooter-Rambo? He’s going to get nothing. He’s going get a parade. You know why? There was no sign posted in the church saying you can’t carry a concealed weapon.  She was nine years old.

If guns are meant to deter the threat of crime, what’s the point of concealing them? I mean, wouldn’t you want the criminal to see that you’ve got a gun?

I suppose the concern has more to do with the threat to the Second Amendment. But we can’t all just agree it’s a stupid-ass amendment that was written before there were street lamps, much less police forces, and move on?

Only 16% believe gun ownership is an absolute right. Only 9% believe it’s an absolute wrong. There’s middle. We can win them!

There has been a lot of shootings this year, from Colorado, to the church’s, to schools. And it is easy to think that these events are random and happen just a few times, they don’t. Mark Davis and Shelia Elvis were killed by a gun last night.  He was a biology teacher and she was a nursing student. Tina Bishop and Melina Marklin were killed by a gun last night, they were 12. There were 36 homicides last night, 480 sexual assaults, 3,411 robberies, 3,600 aggravated assaults, all at gun point. And if anyone thinks those crimes could have been prevented if the victim themselves was carrying a gun, I would like to remind you all that even the President of the United States has been shot  surrounded by the best armed guards in the history of the world.