Thursday, December 3, 2015

My Alto Voice in the Choir



Oh, America...you sad, gunslinging whorehouse...Ah freedom.
                                                    Jeff F.


I have no interest in those of you who like to collect, carry, protect yourself with and otherwise support the narrow interpretation of the Second Amendment.  Your exultation in your conceal and carry status or your photos of your gleaming gun cabinets are nails in the coffins of all the people who've died these last few weeks, culminating in the fourteen deaths yesterday of people who work with the developmentally disabled. Like Sophie. Yes, I'm making an emotional decision. You've made your decision, a decision that I believe is immoral and cowardly and based on nothing but fear and craven impulse. I have no interest in speaking with you nor in living alongside you.

I have nothing to add to this bit that Mary Moon at Bless Our Hearts wrote in her inimitable style and would only add that I refuse to listen to anyone, ever again, justify their lack of support for extremely strict gun laws.

What sort of guns did those gunmen, still on the loose, use today to calmly murder fourteen (at last count) people at a center for developmental disabilities in San Bernardino?
I don't know. But I can tell you this- the guns, whatever kind they were, were manufactured for one purpose and one purpose only and that is for the murder of human beings. Many human beings. As quickly as possible.

At this point, I don't give a shit what these crazy white men (it's always crazy white men, isn't it?) have or had as a motive to make them do what they did. I don't CARE if they needed mental health care that they were unable to get. I don't care what their religion was or their social or non-social lifestyle was. I don't care what video games they played or what their neighbors thought of them.
All I care about is that they were able to get these guns, these weapons of evil intent and the ammunition to go in them and use them to kill innocent people.
And of course it's always "innocent" people. School children, people in church, people in movies, people seeking health care services, people at an awards ceremony at a center for people with developmental disabilities.
Look- anyone who would do what these men do is mentally ill. That's a given. Whether they are teenagers who want to kill their fellow students or grown men who want to gun down abortion providers- they are sick.
That is not at question.
But here's what is- what sort of deep sickness has infected us as a nation which would allow this direct cause and effect to still be legal? What is it about us as a society which makes us hesitate for even a second before outlawing these sorts of weapons? What has happened to us as a species that would allow this to happen over and over again?
I don't even care if the second amendment DOES protect the rights of people to buy these guns (and I don't think for a second that it does). Let's amend the damn amendment. Because our babies are being killed.
And we are the laughing stock of the world.

So how do we do it? How do we, as a nation, say no more? 
Look- I'm at the point where I'd let the government declare martial law and send agents to every house in the nation to collect these guns. Which, of course, would lead to civil war and unbelievable bloodshed because that would prove to the gun insanists (yes, I made that word up) that the very thing they've been yelling about as a defense for owning guns has finally come true.
Nothing is going to happen overnight. It just isn't. This is a problem and a horror that may take decades before we see some results. Is that a reason not to begin the process? To outlaw these guns?
The horror and evil of slavery wasn't solved in a day. Hell, we're still suffering the consequences.
BUT IT HAS TO BEGIN SOMEWHERE!
And this absolutely undeniably psychotic love affair with guns that a certain segment of American society has must be stemmed. The finger has to be stuck in the dike, no matter how huge the force behind it threatens to be. And no jokes allowed- this ain't funny.

I'm preaching to the choir here. I know that. But let me remind you- don't vote for anyone who wavers or waffles on gun control. Just don't. Stand up and let's begin to start the process of getting these guns out of the hands of the insane. And no one in this whole world really believes that background checks really work. We have to just stop selling them. And even, dare I say? Making them?

14 comments:

  1. I always sang alto as well.
    I am incredibly honored that you posted my words today. Thank you, Elizabeth.

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  2. I'm jumping on this bandwagon!

    Best,
    Bonnie

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  3. Another choir member over here. Thank you.

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  4. Can't sing but I'll lip sync with you all happily.

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  5. I love how both you and Ms .Moon don't mince words. I am only one Canadian and can't speak for the rest of the world. I know I am certainly not laughing. But I am appalled that what is supposed to be "the greatest nation on earth" allows (yes, allows) this to happen. At what point will gun lobbyists say that enough massacres have happened and maybe the Amendment needs to be dissolved? Are these people as concerned with the other 26 (is it 26?) Amendments or is it just the right to "keep and bear arms"? How many of them give a shit about the other Amendments? How many would be able to quote even one of them? Because it all comes across as bullshit to me. I can't help thinking about a funny bumper sticker I saw once. "Nice truck. Sorry about your dick" Just what are these gun lovers trying to prove? To me, living here on my little island, it would appear that it is people who feel small that need to carry a fucking gun. Someone who is afraid and insecure. What other reason is there? Carrying a gun, in my opinion, gives people a sense of power, of control, and yet did carrying a gun stop any of these maniacs? No.
    Fuck. I don't know. Sadly, I think as a nation the United States is too far gone on this particular issue. There is no way to fix this.
    And as always, I LOVE so many of my U.S. blogging buddies but when it comes to gun control I shake my head.
    Now I will sit here worrying that I sound self-righteous. I'm not. Canada is also in a huge fucking mess. Our only hope is that Fucktard Asshat Harper is no longer in power.

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    1. Thanks for your comment, Birdie. I agree with all of it except for your epithet -- "fucktard" makes me wince because, well, you know why.

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  6. Ouch. My god, never even occurred to me. Fuck. My humble apologies and with the promise to remove that word from my vocabulary.

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    1. FYI -- some conservatives use the epithet "libtard," which I figured you didn't want to be in company with --

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    2. It has been bothering me all night that I said something so thoughtless. No excuses. Just more aware of my flippant vocabulary.
      And no. I do not like conservatives. No. I do not!

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  7. I just don't understand the obsession that the United States has with guns. WTF!

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  8. Gun sales up again. Every time something like this happens, many go running to buy more guns.

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  9. Amen.

    I am not of the government, and I will happily volunteer to go door-to-door and collect all the guns and shred them Fargo-style, in an enormous wood chipper. And I would go on doing it for the remainder of my days because I do NOT believe that anyone's "Right" to own a gun trumps my "Right" to feel safe sending my children to school every day. When your "entertainment" is more important than my family's freedom to walk the streets without fear of being gunned down, we are in a fucked up world.

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