February 21, 2018

My heart broke last Wednesday afternoon and I have been grieving for the families and the people in Parkland, Florida. Fourteen babies—for surely they were their parents’ and grandparents’ babies—slaughtered for no apparent reason. Three brave teachers/coaches who gave their lives in defense of their students. Seventeen lives stolen that day, carelessly wasted, and holes mercilessly ripped into the hearts of families and friends.

Anyone who’s lost a child knows that these are holes that will never, ever be filled. These are losses that will never, can never, be made right. Hearts may, in time, mend sufficiently for bodies to carry on, but those hearts will never be whole again.

I understand the second amendment to the United States Constitution. I even agree with it. However, I do not understand why anyone of sound mind would want to purchase a gun of war. I do not understand how anyone of sound mind could claim their second amendment rights would be violated if they could not purchase a semi-automatic rifle. Apparently, the Supreme Court doesn’t understand that either, as they’ve ruled that the ability to purchase one of these specific guns is not a constitutional right.

Oh, what’s that you say? You want to go hunting? You want to use that semi-automatic long gun you have there, that AR-15, to hunt deer and wild pigs? How many rounds per minute you say? On a deer or a pig? Can’t imagine there would be much left of the critters to eat after you emptied that magazine into them.

Did you know the US military was equipped with M-16s in Vietnam? And did you know that there was a push to replace those with AR-15s, because those guns were more lethal and more reliable than what the military was using? Still think it’s just a “hunting rifle”?

As I was watching the news coverage in the aftermath of this latest school massacre, I heard Washington lawmakers claim they needed to focus on mental illness, not any kind of “gun controls”. I heard them say that those who suffer from mental illness should not be able to purchase guns. My question is this: If they really feel that way, then why did they, in early 2017, repeal the very law that was already in place for that express purpose?

There is no other country on earth that has the kind of constant, almost routine mass shooting incidents, as does the United States. Oh, there are other places where mass violence and mass death happen. Namely, in Afghanistan, and in the middle East, and in Iraq and Syria. But those are war zones. The United States of America is supposed to be, as Ronald Reagan called it, “a shining city on a hill”. It’s not supposed to be a war zone. But with on average 33,000 people dying each year from gun violence? With this being the 30th mass shooting incident of 2018? Friends? February 14th was day 45 of 2018. That gives you an average of a mass shooting every day and a half! More Americans die in two years from gun violence than all the American lives lost in the Vietnam War.

By comparison, there have been 10 mass shooting incidents in Canada—since the year 2000.

When the slaughter of the six and seven-year-olds happened in 2012 at Sandy Hook, I was sure that finally something had happened that would cause saner minds to prevail. I was certain changes would finally be made. But nothing changed, and I’m sorry, I just don’t understand it.

Is enough ever going to be enough?

95 per cent of Americans support tougher background checks before guns can be purchased. 65 per cent of Americans support banning assault weapons. Yet nothing changes. And why is that?

Please don’t tell me that this is an issue of American patriotism, because frankly, it’s not. We’re talking about guns powerful enough to cut down the wall of a house—being in the hands of the mentally disturbed. Friends, the refusal to institute tough background checks, enact legislation to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, and legislation to ban assault weapons has nothing to do with protecting the second amendment rights of the people of the United States.

It only has to do with protecting weapons sales and the weapons manufacturers’ profit margins. It is, quite frankly, flagrant greed at the cost of your babies’ lives.

Love,
Morgan
http://www.morganashbury.com
http://www.bookstrand.com/morgan-ashbury