Sometimes there are no words.....

Last week 26 lives were cut short and their surviving families faced their own "apocalypse". With that came an age old debate about guns, our second amendment rights and mental disease. I don't think anyone can deny that the tragedy that occurred in Newtown, CT is just that, a tragedy. Today (12/22/12) marks the final funerals for the victims and their loved ones. Across this country thousands of people, including our government officials, are debating the issue of gun control. The subject is turning out to be like politics and religion...you just don't talk about it in friendly terms.

The following is my opinion. As such I may offend some but I leave the door open to more discussion about this topic. Gun control is not an answer or a solution.


"Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale...."(wikipedia) that being said there is no real way to lawfully restrict the sale and use of guns without going against the second amendment rights of U.S.citizens. But this really isn't about our second amendment rights. As with illegal drugs, there will always be a flaw in the design. Clearly the war on drugs has been dwarfed by those who continue to buy and sell illegal drugs. The answer to this dilemma is to reconsider the possibility of legalizing drugs and deeply taxing them. But this does little in the way of solving the issue of gun control, does it? After days of silence the NRA came forward and demanded that Congress add armed security guards in front of American schools as the "solution". They blamed violent video games, pointed fingers at politicians and criticized the media for "mistruths" regarding the types of weapons used (12/21/12 press release here). They seem hell bent on protesting against the use of "high caliber" weapons in the Newtown shooting and in my mind missing the point all together. The point, in my mind, being that regardless of what type of gun was used, 26 lives were cut short on 12/15/12! The NRA missed an opportunity to unite with politicians and community leaders on ways to prevent this type of tragedy from ever happening again. Instead they gave us their typical battle cry: "You can have my gun when you pry it from my cold dead hands!"




Adam Lanza, Dylan Klebold, Eric Harris, James Holmes, Jared Loughner, and Seung-Hui Cho. We are all well acquainted with these names. They are the names and faces of mental disease. They were allowed to slip through the cracks of health care. That is the real problem and we are all to blame. We cried foul about "Obama care", we became the angry mob at the very idea of gun control, we bristled at the thought of higher taxes......at every step we said "NO WAY!" and the time has now come where serious talk must lead into serious action. President Obama said it best when he said " saying we can no longer accept events like this has become routine". As I end this post, I leave you with this.........



I don't have the answer. I don't believe anyone at this time has the answer. I do know that there is answer and I know that until we all stop fussing and changing the focus away from serious talk and serious action on gun regulation, mental health etc. will we actually create a solution. The 26 lives can't be lost in vain, they have to have counted for something. Their families who now face the first Christmas without them are looking to all of us to make sure something like this never ever happens again....period! We must do the right thing even when it may creep up on our personal comfort zones.