Taking Care of Our Children
We were stunned once again as a country with the recent shootings in Connecticut. Safe at school or in a movie theater have become things of the past. Men, women and our most precious children are being gunned down by fellow countrymen. It’s sickening, but when you stop and think about it, we humans have been good at killing one another since then beginning of mankind.
Today’s assault rifles make slaughtering a dozen or more people nothing more than a tragic midway game at a carnival. It’s easy and sadly very effective. I support a person right to own a gun. I understand that some people want one or more. I understand that guns kill and I understand why I don’t feel the need to own one. I realize that we can’t place guards in every public building to protect us.
It took the latest massacre for me to say “enough.” Guns will be around, but semi-automatic killing machines should be banned. Forget your rights for a moment and remember the lonely and quiet homes whose rooms are filled with only memories of another senseless death.
Sure, we’ll move forward with our lives after the holidays, but our politicians will be reminded by mothers and fathers, aunts and uncles, brothers and sisters, grandmothers and grandfathers, many of whom own guns, that we as a nation must do what’s right. We must change laws to restrict the most lethal of firearms.
I really don’t get why anyone needs an AK-47. I understand owning a rifle or some other type of regular gun. So, I basically agree. My only other issue is that I think that this country needs to start talking about mental illness and a better way to treat individuals. When you reach 18, you are considered an adult, but a number of young men and women aren’t ready to function as an adult because of a mental illness. I don’t want to go back to the day of people being institutionalized, but we do need to strike a better balance between independence for those afflicted with an illness and a safety net that allows the country to help support individuals.
I don.t see the need for anyone to own an AK-47 for their personal use.
I also think as a society we seriously need to consider our attitudes towards mental illness and the current lack of affordable care for those who are most in need.
Several times in the past day I have looked at my grandchildren and trembled with the thought that moms and dads and grandparents in Connecticut are grieving so deeply. We, in this country, have been so blessed with so little overall violence that this event has shaken many of us as we stand in disbelief that this could ever have occurred. Yet it has! As I hear sounds from both the left and right of our political spectrum I want to scream. Stop posturing and solve the problem!! We seem to have lost the essence of our republic–compromise. And worst yet, our values!! Surely it is time to put away this growing idea that the individual’s rights always trump the rights of the masses. What needs to come next in our dialogue is not who should have or not have what weapon, but rather how does this society revalue itself.
I agree that there needs to be more positive focus on how to help those with mental illness learn how to cope @ find the much needed help. I also agree that there really isn’t a need for an individual to own AR’s. i would also like to say that there weren’t just 26 lives taken. There were 28. The attacker killed his mother and also took his own life.
I spoke to a friend who said it takes over a year to get a gun of any type in some countries. How long does it take in the US? Not long enough.
When I hear the NRA saying that “we” are violating the 2nd amendment; or when I hear people say that our country was founded on the right to bear arms, it makes me so frustrated. Our nation was also “founded” during slavery; and women not having the right to vote. Those days are gone, and I think we can all agree that our country is better served by women voting and slavery gone! In the 21st century, it’s time for automatic weapons or high capacity magazines available to the public to also be a sordid part of our past.
I wish this problem could be solved easily by banning certain weapons, but unfortunately that is not getting to the root of the problem. As others have mentioned those commiting these violent acts obviously are suffering from some sort of mental issues. If we ban guns the sick people will just resort to other means of violence — bombs have been used in the past. I don’t know what the answer is, but it will take more than banning some weapons to put an end to this craziness.