This is the Facebook post I originally published on May 25, 2022, a day or so after the massacre of babies in Uvalde, Texas.
When terrible disasters happen millions of dollars are spent investigating what happened to (1) assign blame (2) recoup costs and (3) try to ensure that it never happens again. There are entire government departments dedicated to the prevention of workplace accidents and restaurant safety. In addition, governments dedicate reams of paper to bureaucracy and codes to ensure buildings, bridges, elevators, escalators, etc. are safe.
Most of us pay taxes so governments can do these things. In addition, we pay taxes to support school systems to educate our children. One would think that with all the focus on the safety of food, buildings, bridges, and workplaces, and taking preventative measures to ensure disasters are not repeated that we should feel secure in sending our children to our local public schools for daily reading, math, science, and other creative pursuits.
However, that is not the world we live in… As I well know… On January 18, 1993, while doing a reading assignment in English class I witnessed the murder of my English teacher, the school janitor, and then sat as a hostage with my fellow classmates until the shooter (who was a fellow classmate) eventually let us go. I was not expecting to be the victim of a school shooting that day. I was expecting it to be a normal day of my senior year of high school. The thought of a shooting at school was not even possible in my mind.
Yesterday, babies went to school expecting to have a normal day at school. Parents sent their babies to school expecting them to have a normal day at school. Teachers went to school expecting to teach these children and come home to their babies. Of course, their normal does involve active shooter drills and the knowledge that shootings can happen, but I suspect that folks did not think a school shooting would happen yesterday.
Thirty years after the events of January 1993 I still uncover the effects that the trauma has had on my life. It impacted my personal & professional life and my health in more ways than I have space or willingness to share. The parents and family of those who died yesterday are no doubt devasted and will be impacted by the events for years to come. The individuals that survived the events as they transpired have been injured in ways that are unseen and may never be fully uncovered.
I grew up in the last days of the toy aisles in department stores having a section of toy guns and these were the guns without the orange muzzles and neon colors. I was the kid who had an arsenal of those toy guns. I loved shows like The A-Team and my friends and I would play like we were those escaped fugitives, or spies, or soldiers. I grew up around guns. I learned to shoot guns. I liked guns.
I also grew up formatted to sway to the Right along the political aisle and Baptist along my religious journey. As you can imagine this laid a foundation for an interpretation of the world and the events that occur in the world along with a set perspective. As an adult, I built upon this foundation and ingrained a political and religious ideology that I was certain was right. This meant that despite being a victim of a school shooting I was bound and determined to grit my teeth and shout from the rooftop about the right to keep & bare arms.
Yesterday, Senator Murphy, from Connecticut, who at one time represented the town of Sandy Hook, (yes that Sandy Hook) took to the Senate floor to plead with the members of the United States Senate to wake up and do something. I am ashamed to say that at one time I would have had the thought that he was partially genuine and partially doing it out of political posturing. Today, I think he is just angry and doesn’t want to see another kid, teacher, administrator, or janitor killed in a school shooting. He never wanted to see another Sandy Hook.
Senator Murphy asked his colleagues to finally find a compromise, to finally pass legislation to address the nation’s continuing gun violence problem. Let that sink in… A senator that once represented a community where horrific gun violence happened at a school was on the floor of the Senate the day more horrific gun violence happened to beg for a compromise on legislation that might help scale back the violence. By the way, Sandy Hook was 9.5 years ago.
He went on to say to reporters later that we can no longer focus on old conversations about mental illness as the primary focus. He said other countries have issues with mental issues, but they don’t have mass shootings. What makes America different is we have the easiest access to firearms. That makes us the outlier.
Since 1970, nearly 700 people have died in school shootings. Nearly three times that many have been injured. There is no statistic that accounts for the number of grieving family members, or the number of individuals severely injured by the trauma of the shooting. These numbers are ridiculous and unacceptable. There should be no shooting within the walls of our schools. Is it completely preventable? No. Is it possible to massively scale it back? Yes, by making it nearly impossible to access a gun.
Folks, As the kid who grew up liking guns, who grew into a conservative talk radio listening, second amendment loving Amurican, I can say this with all the freedom-loving, life-loving, breath in my chest. Guns kill people. People kill people with guns. I know, I’ve seen it. If my former classmate had not had easy access to a gun, then I might not have had thirty years of hell that is chronic PTSD. If the shooter yesterday did not have easy access to a gun, then kids the ages of my son and my nieces might still be alive today. Their teachers might be alive. Their families would not be grieving, and the survivors would not be facing years of unspeakable recovery.
I gave up political talk radio a long time ago and I can no longer tow some imaginary “party-line” on political issues. All of these issues we are dealing with today that everyone either tries to be the expert on or simply beat each other the head about are far more complex than (or far simpler) than we are led to believe. It comes down to me what is the human thing to do… And in this case, it is doing whatever you have to do to keep little kids from being murdered.
If you are worried about your protection, get a big dog, name him Bob, hug him close, and for crying out loud let him live inside because dogs are pack animals and want to be with their pack inside not outside in some damn cage. Get pepper spray. Do not live way out in the country. Install a security system. Move beside a police station. Take Karate. Get head-to-toe tattoos and have spikes inserted in your forehead so you look so scary that no one wants to mess with you (although you might look very attractive, not judging). Find the biggest dude or gal you know and become their best friend.
If you must hunt, which I guess someone should for the deer population’s sake alone, embrace archery. If you are worried about the ‘Feds’ coming for you, I hate to tell you, but they are already you where you live, and they have everything they need to take you out if they want to whether you have your arsenal or not.
Some may be offended by this post and that’s okay. I’m offended by the lack of anyone doing anything real to stop children from being murdered in their school. I wish someone had kept a gun out of my former classmate’s hands.
