Women and Children First?

This is a picture I took yesterday, at least they didn't have the show on the anniversary of the Tucson mass shooting but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

I hope most people in our world had a nice holiday. I know the people Newtown Connecticut had a terrible month. This could have been written about sooner but it was too fresh for me, and while many put out knee jerk reaction blogs to this tragedy. Things for me needed to be digested, thought about, contemplated and I just could not do that right after it happened. Instead, I decided to bash “The Hobbit” movie, that was just much easier to do. You see my son is in the first grade. If we were living in Newtown it could have easily been him in those classrooms. That made it so much harder to work on this blog. Also, today is the two year anniversary of the mass shooting in Tucson, yet another example of why I needed to speak out yet again on this subject.

I saw “Les Miserables” with my mother the day after Christmas. I do have to say it is quite well done for the big screen (not like “The Hobbit”) but it is still better as a live musical. I guess I just feel that about most musical performances, when it is live the performer has to be working their hardest. There are no second takes. The reason I mention this is while I cried my eyes out for most of the movie (it is NOT a happy story) I was particularly saddened when I watched “Empty Chairs at Empty Tables.” It is so easy to exchange tables for desks and think of the children of Newtown. I also think of the people of Syria, who are fighting a dictatorship for their freedom. As we all know, freedom is not free, but if your country is safe and prosperous, do you need an arsenal at home?

The NRA says yes and stoutly defends our 2nd amendment to the Constitution. The NRA solution to this all is to not try to ban anything or help people with mental disorders. Instead they would like to place an armed police person in every school. I hate to say it but there was an armed guard at Columbine and that did not seem to help anything. Also, how would they pay for this? If Arizona is not going to raise taxes to improve the education of it's students, I don't think they will raise taxes to add a police presence to those schools. If the NRA would start a fund and add heavily to it to pay for this, then I might take them seriously.

There are some things that seem logical (to me) to prevent this type of tragedy:

1. There is a stigma to problems in mental health. Believe me, I know. I was in denial about my Depression because I did not want to be considered mentally ill. People need to understand that there are many with mental health issues out there and most of them are just trying to be good people. If there is help out there and screening for these issue. Then people will get help without prejudice. Understanding is necessary. Also, if I hear any more about that boy's Autism I could scream. I personally believe that anyone with Asperger's Syndrome is less likely to be violent than anyone else. They are usually quiet, studious people. Adam Lanza was the exception, and there are always exceptions. If this kid was treated a bit better, with more understanding, perhaps this would not have happened. It still might have, but there are also other ways.

2. If his mother did not have all those weapons this might not have happened. I have heard that a family member said that she had the weapons to defend herself since it was just her and her son. But did she need so many weapons? It only makes sense to me to have a permanent assault weapon ban and multi-bullet magazine ban. During the10 year Assault Weapons Ban, mass shootings were way down except for 1999 and the Columbine shooting. See graphic below from Sam Wang and Mark Follman. For more information see the link to the Princeton article.

I don't think those weapons are necessary unless you live in a war zone. We do NOT live in a war zone and I am not going to help that along just because some people feel insecure without a AK47. A handgun should be adequate. And who needs an AK47 to hunt Bambi anyway? Where is the sport in that? That is one of the few things I can agree with Ted Nugent about, as far as I am concerned, the only real hunters out there are the bow hunters. I am not advocating removal of the second amendment, as some are, but am just trying to add some common sense to it. It does not have to be all or nothing with guns, we can have some reasonable restrictions.

3. Nobody seems to talk about gun shows. But they are a HUGE loophole in any gun registration process. Those places are basically have no limits on what people can buy and how much. It seems there are some sensible people who are canceling Gun Shows, especially near Newtown. Where do you think the paranoid people are going to go if they don't want you to run a check on them? One of my favorite shows is Futurama, and in the episode where they did a play on “The Wizard of OZ” and when the cowardly Lion (in the form of Dr. Zoidberg) asked for courage, the Wizard said “Who needs courage when you can have a gun?” I think that goes exponentially for assault weapons. As far as I am concerned, if you do not live in a war zone and are not in a war, you are the biggest coward if you feel it is necessary to have a huge armory at home. If you do not like the way the United States is moving politically, then move. If you think you can take on the US (who has nuclear weapons) with your armory, you are quite mistaken. And I don't even want to talk about the chances of a zombie apocalypse, if that is the reason for your armory, I feel sorry you wasted your money.

Finally, my son has become quite a Titanic fan. For Christmas he got two model kits and one already built small boat. I think being fascinated with large steam boats has helped him learn about the Titanic's tragedy. It helps him have to learn the unfortunate fact that terrible things happen in this world. But back then it was the women and children that were saved first. It seems that now this chivalry is gone for it was women and children of Sandy Hook Elementary that were the first ones who suffered at the hands of this deranged individual who very easily stole an arsenal. I will pray for healing for the people of Newtown and for some sanity in our country about guns.