This Just In... Christmas Is Over

Wha?  What happened?

What was all that noise, just now?  The singing, clamoring, and the YELLING ABOUT SELLING STUFF!!!  "Jesus Christ!" I said.  And I was right, apparently. 

I think that there was a little more going on there than a holiday for the birth of Jesus.  Yeah, yeah, I know, there was New Year's too, and a host of others.  But there was a helluva lot more going on.

We had people mourning the loss of their child.  There was vilification and the ascension of heroes.  There was drama and then some.  Once again, there was tragedy, and once again, the media slurped it up and sprayed it back at us, with more, more, more.

When are we going to learn?  There is no way to place a safety force field over our kids.  Adding more guns to the situation just doesn't seem like a good idea to me.

We've gotta talk about what drives people crazy.  But that's what drives people crazy in the first place.

We need to get serious about our priorities.  Is it really so important that guns be so easily available?  And ammunition too?  Why is it so important that we have guns?

I don't own any.  I've fired a rifle before, and shot some pellet guns, but I imagine I rate as a gun novice.  Still, I feel that my safety is not increased by guns, or wouldn't be by me owning one.  I think guns threaten my safety more than enhance it.  But that's me.

I believe that people should have a right to own a gun and be a responsible steward of it.  Having a gun requires great responsibility.  As does driving a motor vehicle.  Or voting Republican, for that matter.

I just don't see the sense in amassing an arsenal, like so many do.  It only seems to build the paranoia and suspicion that is present at the beginning of the decision making.  Why do we need so many nuclear bombs, for example?  To "scare" our enemies, who have an equally large pile of similar bombs?  In order to deal with our problems, we need to approach them realistically, not by swinging a bigger stick.  Although such a tactic might work in the short term, in the long term the problems usually get exacerbated.

So go ahead.  Call me a liberal.  Bleeding heart.  All that shit.  Whatever.  You can even shoot me.  Kill me.  Rub me out.  Silence me with your assassin's bullet.  But there is a grand accounting to all of this, and that will bring the greater good.  So can your hysterical chanting about how the government's gonna take away our guns and we'll all be goose-stepping in no time.  Because it's hogwash.  Bullshit.  You're kidding yourself if you think owning a gun makes both you and me safer.  It still doesn't give you the right to kill, and all of your hypothetical scenarios where you get to play hero don't actually slay the dragon.  There's more to this story, poncho.