The Definition of Hypocrisy

When the very people who defended their right to fly this flag, claiming that it represented their ancestors and their struggles, and not the ideals of slavery, etc.:

hate on this girl for wearing a patch of the Cuban flag she wears as acknowledgment of her father's Cuban roots, claiming that it means she supports the Communist government of that country:

Can they be more obvious in their beliefs that things only apply when it benefits them?

The world could learn from my escape room experience!

A couple of days ago, a handful of us from the dance studio participated in an escape room as part of a birthday celebration of one from our dance family. As we are going through the orientation for the room, we find out that the completion rate for this particular room is only 17%. We look at each other, but we still have some hope we can do this...and if we don't beat it, at least we had fun, right?

Now, this group of folks is probably as different as any group can be. We are not a typical mix of people who would choose to be friends off the street or in the workplace. Our ages are all over the place, different religious beliefs, different backgrounds, very different fields of work and hobbies. The ONE thing that connects us is dance, and the fact that we have been dancing together for years. We are a family!

When it came to the escape room, we ended up beating it, with 2 minutes and 11 seconds left on our time! After the rush was over, and I got to thinking about our amazing feat, I thought about how all of us contributed something to solving this room. We had to find combinations and codes that helped us open things to gain access to other codes or clues. Some of these codes came from other clues that were basically puzzles to solve. Others were a bit sneaky, where you had to be in the exact spot of a room to see them painted on the wall. Even another was in some "graffiti" that didn't come right out and give you the number, but each thing written was a clue to a number (i.e., it referenced a part of a song or something). I don't think any of us would have been able to find all of the clues ourselves, because there were so many different ways they were hidden, and if we were in there with like-minded people, we probably would not have seen them all due to thinking too much the same way. However, because of our diversity and the fact we all saw the world just a bit different, we were able to get all the clues...everyone had something to contribute! No one's clue was more important than another clue, because they were ALL needed to solve the larger puzzle! That means that no one person's view of things in the room was more important...because we all needed to see the room a bit different to ultimately succeed...and probably none of us would have been able to get through it alone.

This got me thinking about problems in our country...and in the world. If only the rest of the world could see how we worked together in that room...without fighting or arguing. We just stayed focused on the prize...which was beating the room. In the end, we celebrated each person's contribution, because they were all important. How the world would be a better place if we operated like we did in that room!! What if everyone acknowledged that everyone's skills...from the janitor to the scientist finding a cure for a disease...served a purpose and was important to the end goal? I mean...we need our trash picked up and things to be cleaned just as much as we need cures for sickness. There are also about a billion things we need in-between...people who make clothing or cars, people who keep the back end workings of our cell phones and streaming services going, people who help protect our communities and our homes. No one is cut out for all of the jobs! We tend to take jobs and do things based on our beliefs...religious our otherwise. Our brains are wired differently with some people being more analytical with others being more creative. Even our physical build can dictate what we have to contribute, with some people being naturally stronger than others, or the fact that some jobs require smaller people while others require larger. The things we can contribute are no more important than the next person! We need ALL of the pieces for the world to run...just like we needed the differences between us in that room to beat it! If only the world could learn to have respect for each other and be able to work together like we did in that room, it would be a much better place!

The NRA Strikes Again!

Read news this weekend that just as soon as Florida passed a bill increasing the age to buy ANY firearm in the state to 21, the NRA has swooped in with a lawsuit claiming that such is unconstitutional! Really? If a person under the age of 21 is deemed not old enough to consume alcohol, how can you say they are old enough to purchase any kind of firearm, which is even more dangerous?

Okay, no I know the argument by heart already. "Oh, they aren't old enough to buy a gun at 18, but they are old enough to die for YOUR freedom?" The answer is...NO! I know what the laws say, but I don't think an 18 year old is old enough to be sent into war do die for this country! Enlist? Okay, sure...but don't deploy until they are at least 21. There are too many young men and women being sent into war zones with only a few weeks of training, and they simply don't have the emotional or mental maturity yet to deal with what they will see or have to do over there! What happens is that so many come back...mentally screwed up for life...to a home where the mental health system is failing them! I'm not saying that 3 years is going to prevent it, but it is amazing what a difference just 3 years makes when it comes to mental and emotional maturity!

And would it really hurt to keep these young men and women back a couple or few years to give them additional training? So that maybe they can do more than carry a rifle and be cannon fodder? Train them to operate tanks or drones. Train them to be mechanics on Navy ships. Hell, even put them in the classroom to get a head start on their higher education! Give them time to mature, to learn, and maybe give them some skills so that when they do come back home, it is easier for them to integrate back into civilian life should they decide to not re-enlist!

But I digress in order to ask the question I get a billion times when I say that no person under the age of 21 should be allowed to buy a firearm! I will stick to that, as well as my opinion about sending our young men and women to be killed! Alas, the NRA strikes again! This will be a case to watch, as I am afraid that money and special interest will again prevail, and cripple the security of this country...just like it did when they won the ruling that caused our background check system to forever be broken! The NRA do no represent people...not even their 5 million members! They represent gun manufacturers...PERIOD! They will fight anything that would potentially mean fewer gun sales. We MUST stop giving lobbyists and special interests control of this country!

What about the kid with a bomb?!

There have been a lot of pro-gun activists this week pointing out that earlier in the week, a kid who was an ISIS sympathizer/supporter showed up to a Utah school with a bomb in his backpack. Now, because of a malfunction, his backpack started smoking, and he was caught before any damage was done.

Pro-gun activists are quick to jump on the fact that this has not gotten the kind of news coverage that the Parkland shootings did...claiming it is because it doesn't meet the narrative for gun control! What they fail to acknowledge is that incidents happen all the time that aren't reported on the national front. Why? Because no one is harmed! There have been many more than 12 cases of a someone with a gun on a school campus since January...but you only hear about the 12 where someone was actually injured or hurt. "But he had a bomb...proves that taking away guns won't solve the issue!" Again, MOST of us are not calling for the disarming of a nation...we are not out to take away your damn guns! What we want is for it to be harder for evil or unstable people to have access to guns! Guns are more common, because they are easier! There are many more cases of guns being used to hurt people than there are bombs, because bombs require more work! I've said this before. You have to gather the ingredients and parts. You have to find the instructions on the web. You have to construct the bomb without blowing yourself up! Most people are going to go to all that work.

Guns are used in far more intentional attacks on people than bombs or cars, but you can't tell the pro-gun activists that. They will point you to drunk drivers and general accidents due to reckless driving or what not, and point out that more people are killed by cars every year than guns. They will fail to also note that very, very few of those deaths are intentional. Hardly anyone says on a Friday night, "I'm going to go get drunk, and then I'm going to go kill someone with my car." No one says, "I'm going to leave the house today and go blasting through a red light and kill someone while playing on my cell phone." The difference is intent!

Of course, then they come at you with the medical stats, about how many people die every year by this and that...heart disease, stroke, whatever. Guess what, everyone dies at some point. When that is for each person, no one knows. If we don't die by the actions of another person, our bodies will eventually start breaking down...some sooner than others, based on genetics. A guy I dated back in my early 20's...his dad died in his 40's due to a severe heart attack. The guy I used to date? I found out a few years ago that he died just shy of age 50...due to a severe heart attack! Could it have been avoided? Maybe, but the point is, genetically, that is what he was already at risk for. There is no promise that anything he did in his life would have changed anything dramatically. There are plenty of people who have eaten healthy and exercised that still had heart attacks!  While diet and exercise, yes, reduce your risk, depending on your exact genetic markers, there is no guarantee. Just like I've known people who smoked all their lives, and still lived well into their 90's without a trace of cancer...because of their genetics! So, don't start throwing "natural causes" numbers at me with relation to a gun argument!

Actually, I'm rather surprised that not more of the media picked up the backpack story, because of the ISIS tie, I would have fully expected certain folks to jump on the "see this is why we need immigration reform" narrative again!

Why is an AR-15 more deadly?

I'm going to put this link here, and then give a very, very brief summary.

What an AR-15 Can Do to the Human Body

I've seen so many arguments out there about how the AR-15 isn't all that more deadly than a handgun or other rifle. But, this article makes a couple of points that you will rarely see addressed.

1) The bullet shot by an AR-15 leaves the barrel at 3x the speed of a bullet shot from a handgun (even semi-auto). While the bullet of a handgun could potentially get stopped by a larger bone in the body, or just lodge itself and not come out the other side, this high speed can cause it to ricochet round inside the body or go tearing out through the other side and into another person. The doctor in this article points out that a person surviving a handgun shot will more than likely only need one surgery to treat, the survivor of an AR-15 shot would need 3-10 surgeries!!  I mean, how is this for a description of what it can do:

"It has so much energy that it can disintegrate three inches of leg bone. 'It would just turn it to dust,' says Donald Jenkins, a trauma surgeon at University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. If it hits the liver, 'the liver looks like a jello mold that’s been dropped on the floor.' And the exit wound can be a nasty, jagged hole the size of an orange."

"The bullet from an AR-15 might miss the femoral artery in the leg, but cavitation may burst the artery anyway, causing death by blood loss."

2) Unlike handguns and other rifles, the AR-15 doesn't have a whole lot of kick. The kick of the gun is what makes even a semi-auto handgun more difficult to rapid fire, because it takes the user a second to re-grip and what not. Because of the lack of kick in the AR-15, a shooter can just sit there and wail on that trigger as fast as they can. If they are really good, they can fire close to auto speeds, or if they install something called a "bump stock". It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out if you can get shots off quicker, you can do more damage.

Don't let the pro-gun folks lie to you! They will say, "But I have a semi-auto handgun...should that be banned, too?" Or they will say, "A .308 caliber will do more damage." They will never address the real reasons why the AR-15 is such a dangerous weapon that needs to be taken off of the streets!

Break it down!

Today, I will be breaking down this graphic:

This is a graphic that some gun supporters are throwing around to try to show that there is not a need for any gun reform in this country. What they fail to point out is deaths done to one's self versus deaths by the hand of another.

Abortion: First of all, this number is subjective...depending on when one considers "life" actually begins. Notice that they don't have a separate category for miscarriages or still-births. One has to wonder....are these being clumped in with abortions to make a point? Also, how many of these abortions were due to the pregnancy being a danger to the woman's life, or after finding out that the fetus was not viable or wouldn't survive long after birth even if they were carried to term? They like to throw out that abortion number without any other details behind it, to make it look that there are all these women just using abortion as a means of birth control!

Tobacco: This is a very slow death, and for most of the people in this number, something they did to themselves knowing the risk they were taking smoking. Smoking in general...unless you are pregnant...doesn't cause death to another person due to your actions.

Obesity: Much like tobacco, this is a very slow death, and doesn't cause death to another person due to your actions.

Medical Error: While this is the result of a doctor making a medical error, and thus is someone causing death to another...true. However, so much can be said about this that would be it's own blog! You have nurses and doctors that are often required to work back to back shifts, and mistakes can be made due to lack of sleep. And what about issues that are related to not having all of the facts about a patient, because either they didn't share, or they didn't have full medical records? So many factors here.

Alcohol: Considering drunk driving has it's own category, I'm going to assume that we are talking the slow death that happens as the result of drinking over time. Again, just drinking by itself only shortens you own life, and doesn't cause death to another person.

Suicide: 100% does not cause death to another person! It doesn't also list the reasons a person may take their own life. Were they diagnosed with a terminal illness, and wanted to die on their own terms? Did they suffer from mental illness? Also, fails to break down how many of these suicides were by gun! Shouldn't these count in gun deaths.

Drunk Driving: Yes, again this is a case where your actions cause the death of another person, though this number fails to break down the number of victims who died due to a drunk driver versus the number of drunk drivers who met their own demise due to driving under the influence.

Poisoning: Though this is something that you can do to another person, more breakdown on this is needed. Are we talking accidental poisoning (like a child getting hold of a cleaning product)? Are we talking environmental poisoning?

ANY drug related death: This goes right up there with tobacco and alcohol. Though, not always a slow death, this is something someone inflicts on themselves, for various reasons. The mere use of drugs does not cause death to another person due to your actions.

Murder by gun: 100% the result of a person's actions causing the death of another! Also, while many of the other causes do not have an evil intention involved, so many shootings do! You point a gun at a person, you plan or want to do harm to that person! It has intent, while none of the ones above actually have intent to do harm to ANOTHER person! And this only addresses murder. What about accidental gun deaths, like maybe a hunting accident? Doesn't include that number, I bet!

And let's talk about intent, for a minute. No one smokes, overeats, or drinks with the intent of killing themselves! Suicide and maybe some drug related deaths (as I'm sure there are many overdoses that don't get classified as a suicide when they should be) are people who are hurting...physically and emotionally. Some have untreated mental illness (because we all know mental health services in this country sucks). Some are just tired of their body hurting. Some want deaths on their own terms. And I've already spelled it out for abortions. Quit throwing around numbers simply to try to support your point, without including the details behind them! I notice, they aren't listing some of the other many ways the pro-gun folks try to claim people will kill another person if guns were illegal. How many knife deaths? How many were beat to death by someone's bare hands or with a bat? How many died due to bombings? How many were purposely run down by cars this year so far? All of these other evil things...I bet would make those gun death's look high!

Check your facts!!!

Remember right after the Parkland school shooting, memes started showing up on social media outlets claiming that it was the 18th school shooting in 2018? Remember how the Conservative right quickly jumped on their pages and started sharing a video debunking the claim? Sure, they were correct in calling out incorrect facts, but since that time, Conservative right has been posting their own false "facts", and getting pretty testy when presented with the actual facts by ANYONE...doesn't matter the affiliation.

First, there was David Hobbs, and this post that was getting lots of shares:

This made it's rounds claiming that Hogg had claimed to be a survivor of a school shooting in California. Now, Hogg was in fact in California, and was on the news there. The incident was over a surfboard. Hogg was vacationing there, and was vlogging for his YouTube channel. He posted a video about the incident on his channel, the local news caught wind of it, and interviewed him. However, the mere fact that he had appeared on a news story prior to the Parkland shooting left many Conservative right continuing to claim Hogg as a hired "crisis actor" even after presented with the facts.

Today, I started seeing this post popping up all over my feed:

This particular one originally made it's rounds in 2015, as some may remember. However, the Arapahoe High School shooting occurred in 2013, which is definitely not "this past Friday"! The shooter was NOT the only one dead after this tragedy. Claire Davis was shot in the head by the shooter as she tried to flee the school library. She died in the hospital 8 days later. Now, there are several of the Conservative right who try to claim that still leaves the claim of "he ended up the only one dead" valid...grasping onto that straw. No, it does not! It really doesn't matter if she died immediately or a week later...in the school, in the ambulance, or in the hospital. If the shooter did not die, he would have been charged with murder the second that Claire Davis was pronounced dead!

And let's move on to the death of the shooter. This meme goes on to claim that an ARMED school resource officer confronted the shooter. The claim leads our Conservative right friends to stand that the officer shot and killed the shooter, thus preventing more death. However, the real story is quite different! The officer was in another part of the school and in fact headed toward the library once he heard what was going on. By the time the officer reached the library, the shooter had already shot himself! Presenting this fact to my Conservative right "friends" today, I got the argument, "He shot himself because he heard the officer was headed his way. He would have taken more lives otherwise!" That is only speculation. The shooter was specifically looking for the librarian, angry that she had cut him from the debate team. There is no certainty that he would have even left the library, even if the officer was not already on hand at the school.

And finally, the claim that mainstream media did not cover this shooting...I mean, since we have heard nothing about it since "this past Friday". Truth is all major media outlets did cover this story back in 2013 when it actually happened. Of course, the media would not be covering this now 5 years later. But, all these actual facts presented, those Conservative right "friends" grasp at every straw to assert their claim that "guns save lives" when every point on the meme is disputed with actual facts.

I point this out, because these are the very people who went ape shit over false claims on social media and the likes that there have been 18 school shootings in 2018 in the US. Now, in the "18 school shooting" claim, the fact is that there have been 18 instances of guns being fired on school grounds. Not all of them were mass shootings...and some of them weren't even considered shootings, as no one was injured or killed. There was at least one case of someone committing suicide in a school parking lot, for example. But our Conservative right "friends" never pointed out those facts...they just screamed "WRONG" and ran away. Much like folks calling them on their bullshit claims...they just want to run away. They can dish out the claims of "false facts" or "fake news", but they really can't take it when they are found to be spreading falsehoods themselves!

Who are the real sheep?

Sheep...these are described as people who just blindly follow. I find that the Conservatives love to label Liberals as sheep. But really...who are the real sheep?!

Over the last week, I've watched as gun-supporting Conservatives have towed the party line! "Guns don't kill people, people kill people!" They keep saying nothing needs to change, without even considering any of the vast and various arguments that Liberals and Progressives have laid out before them. They are happy with the current law, and are holding fast to a 200 year old Amendment that they believe says they are allowed to own any and all guns they want, without any restrictions...an Amendment, mind you, that never took into consideration where we would be today.

That got me thinking...who are the real sheep? I then saw today that long time evangelist Billy Grahm passed away. I started to think about this whole "sheep" mentality thing. Now, I do believe in God...a Creator and higher power...I just don't believe in the Bible as written. Why? Because I don't just blindly follow things!! I like to ask questions when things just don't seem right, or I find contradictions. I understand that the scrolls were written by a man's hand, and that these same scrolls were transcribed and translated by other men, who were under the orders of even more men who had agendas! I question whether the Bible is the EXACT Word of God, because man has had so much involvement...and we all know that man is vulnerable to mistakes and bias. But, we have "flocks"...as they even call themselves in church...of Conservatives who swear by this book as the "true word" of God. They follow it BLINDLY, and criticize others for asking questions, especially if the answer could contradict the Word!

Many of these very same Conservatives backed very different candidates in the Presidential Primaries, stating all the various reasons (many being reasons that Liberals/Progressives are against Trump) why Trump was a terrible choice for President!! When he somehow managed to win the nomination? These very same people lined up behind him and his policy...again, like a flock...because he was the Republican candidate, and how could they ever vote outside of party! Even if they HATED Clinton, there were other choices...much less evil choices. They could have even banded together to write in their preferred Republican candidate, had they wished. But now...they, as if Trump were their shepherd, followed him blindly into the night! Even now, when he has shown himself for all the things we said he was...all those anti-Christian things...they still follow in support for "their President"!

So, I ask again...who are the sheep?

Breaking down the pro-gun arguments

Since I've seen a bunch of pro-gun folks spewing the same arguments the last several days, even going so far as spreading a 2013 video of a racist pig making such arguments, I'm going to give my rebuttle here to some of the talking points I've seen.

1. Guns don't kill people. People kill people.

Yes, I'm going to jump straight out of the gate with this one, seeing as if I hear it one more time, I think I will scream! Most of us who want sensible gun reform are not stupid! We get that people kill people, and that a gun is not going to jump off of a table by itself and shoot someone. We understand that the gun is a tool. However, said tool has been created for one purpose, and one purpose only...to kill or seriously injure something or someone! The problem is, we have made it too easy for people who will more than likely use a gun in an evil way to have access to guns...legally! Current laws put a gun in the hands of a 19-year-old off-the-hinges BOY...yes I said boy! In a time where the average age to leave home is 25, we expect that someone as young as 18 has the maturity to purchase and own a rifle, including a semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round mag?! No, he isn't mature enough to go buy a beer, but he can buy an AR-15!

These same laws put a legal gun in the hands of a man discharged dishonorably from the military for violence against his then wife and stepchild...a man who also escaped from a military mental hospital at least once? Now, you may say, "But there are laws that state if someone is convicted of domestic violence, they cannot own a gun." Yes, this is true. But current policy with regards to background checks only require the checker to check the central background check database! It is ASSUMED that all agencies involved in law enforcement and the likes will report to this system in a timely manner. Well, guess what...they don't...especially when that agency is the US military! Ask anyone who is in the military who has needed something from them...a moving reimbursement check, etc. They will tell you that the military is terrible about doing things in a timely manner. So, it is no surprise that YEARS after this man's court martial and discharge, the information regarding this was never put into the central database; therefore, he was allowed to legally purchase a firearm at a nearby sporting goods store, and target the family of his estranged/ex wife and their entire church!

Our laws also allowed for a very strange (as many neighbors described him) son of a notorious bank robber to collect an arsenal of legal weapons...many of them semi-automatics...and tons of ammo in the course of under a year, and no one even batted an eye at it. Because most states, and especially at the federal level, do not have registration or licensing requirement unless one is carrying in public, there was no one keeping tally of exactly what this guy was buying to raise up a red flag! No one ever questioned his purchases over 11 months! As a result, we had the largest mass shooting in this country's history!

Add to that, in his first 100 days in office, Trump signed a reversal to an Obama-era policy that required the Social Security Administration to report quarterly on certain SSDI recipients who were getting benefits for certain mental disorders to the central background check database. This was in effort to keep guns out of the hands of people with certain mental disorders that would make them more likely to do something evil with said guns. President Trump reversed this policy, thereby allowing guns to be purchased by people with mental disorders!

Yes, people kill people, but why are we making it so fucking easy for them to do so?

2. What about all the people killed with knives, cars, etc? If a person wants to kill someone, they will find a way!

First of all, I'm not even hearing the car argument until guns are as regulated as cars!!! To operate a car:

- one must register said vehicle and renew said registration every year as a means to say they still own it.

- one must have the vehicle inspected once every year to make sure it is still legally fit for the road, and hasn't been modified in any illegal way that would make it dangerous.

- driver must be licensed to operate said vehicle after passing a written and practical skills test, and some states even require retaking of this test every so many years to make sure skills are still on point

- the vehicle must be insured, so that if anyone is injured or property damaged by operation of said vehicle, bills can be covered by the owner/operator

There are also many laws with regard to how a car can and cannot be operated...speed limitations, etc. If any of the above regulations are in violation, or the driver is found to be operating the vehicle in a dangerous way, police are allowed to put the person in jail and impound the vehicle. Even so much as an expired registration is enough to get pulled over, and your vehicle impounded, as it is deemed not legal to be on the road! You don't even have to be doing anything else wrong!

As for knives, materials to make bombs, baseball bats...whatever. It is not as easy to do as much damage with these things. Also, as pointed out before, these items are tools that were designed for use as something OTHER than a tool to injure or kill something. Knives are used to prepare and cut our food. They also come in handy for cutting rope or cable, opening boxes, etc. Before scissors were invented, they were also used to cut hair, and to cut hides in order to make clothing and carry pouches. The materials people say can be used in bomb recipes all have their own uses...from fortifying plants, killing weeds, killing insects, cleaning, etc. To make a bomb from said materials takes a little knowledge, as to not blow yourself up. It also takes time to gather all of the parts, and put them together...work, work, and work. And baseball bats really were never intended to hurt people, but rather knock a ball as far as you could as a sport or game. Hell, I could turn my computer flatscreen monitor into a weapon if I wanted, and women are often instructed on how to use their car or house keys as self defense if attacked in a parking lot alone at night!

The thing about guns is that they are easy, and they do the greatest amount of damage. I will admit, in China there was a knife attack that injured just as many as the shooting in Florida, but keep in mind...that was done by SEVERAL people wielding knives, not just one person. It takes a gang of people to do as much damage with knives as it takes one person with a gun in the same amount of time. Will people still find ways to kill people with gun reform? Yes...we get this. The goal is, however, to minimize the damage! If we take away the ability to kill or injure so many in such a short period of time, making it harder to do mass damage, we are saving lives! With a knife, this guy in Florida may have only killed or injured 2-3 people TOPS before say the coach or the athletic director took his ass down! It is a lot easier to disarm someone with a knife, than disarm someone with a semi-auto gun!

3. Owning guns is my 2nd Amendment right! What if our government turned against us? How would we defend ourselves?

I have to ask you, how ARE you going to defend yourselves, even with your guns?! Shortly before the Florida shooting, I just got through watching a special about the Branch Davidians in Waco. These folks had a stockpile of guns and ammo...they even had fully automatic rifles. On law enforcement's first approach, yes, the Davidians did shoot and kill some officers. What was the response? They brought in tanks, and gas, and helicopters!!! Now, the ATF could have taken them down right then and there, but there were children involved...so they were given some 50+ days of negotiations as the ATF tried to get the Davidians to release the children. Several children were released, not all. A few women...mothers of some of these children...also came out on their own. However, in the end, when the government decided it was time to move in, those guns the Davidians had were useless!! The tanks started punching holes in walls and gas was thrown into the building to disable the people inside. In final desperation, the Davidians set themselves on fire, because, in their belief, it was better to die and go to their maker than to be taken in by the ATF. They knew otherwise, they would be brought out of that compound and arrested, and their guns would be confiscated!

I bring all this up to point out that if we found ourselves defending against a tyrannical government, we can't! The US government could take out entire countries, if they really wanted to. Your stockpile of guns and ammo will NOT help you against tanks, fighter jets, bombers, biological weapons, dones, etc. They won't care if they kill you! They will take down communication systems, shut down power grids, gas you out of your home or bomb it. Hell, for all we know, they will slowly poison our water so that we are weakened before we ever realize what they are doing! Exaggerating? Possibly, but nothing I mentioned is an impossibility! The 2nd Amendment was written in a time where we fought wars with cannons and muskets...our Forefathers couldn't even imagine the world we live in today.

Sure, it is your right to protect yourself and your family...but the most your guns will protect against is other civilians or predatory animals. For that, you do not need a semi-automatic gun with a 30-round mag. It has actually been found that these are pretty useless for personal protection due to accuracy issues. A simple handgun, bolt action rifle, or pump action shotgun will do the job just fine. Hell, I know a lot of people who will shit themselves at the sound of that pump or bold action loading a round into the chamber, and take off right out that door without a shot even fired! A bolt action or pump action is all you even really need for hunting, too. People have been hunting with these for years...and with cross-bows.

4. If there was a "good guy" with a gun, they could have taken out the shooter, and lives would have been saved!

Oh, this one came up a lot after the Texas church shooting, when it was reported that someone chased the shooter down and took him out with their own gun. Did that person actually save lives? NOPE! The shooter already did his damage and was on the run! He wasn't running because someone showed up with a gun...he was already on his way away from the scene when the other guy went in pursuit!

Also, it has been found that even most people who carry, in a situation such as Las Vegas, Texas, or Florida, would not have the appropriate fortitude to take out the shooter effectively. Most would probably do more damage, by hitting an innocent themselves! Would you really want someone with no police or specialized military training in the area of taking out shooters firing a weapon around 2000+ panicking children?! I know I sure wouldn't! We are not going to stop violence by putting more guns on the streets. Am I okay with armed police or guard presence at our schools? Yes...I personally think we need more campus police. I also think we need closed campuses. The only problem is, there are many, many parents who disagree with me...at least, until a tragedy like Florida happens. They will scream about police presence or not having easy access to their child to eat lunch with them or bring them their homework, until a shooter makes their way onto a campus...then it is "why wasn't the campus secured better"! Um, because YOU didn't want it that way! Teachers with guns? Yeah, no. Like I said...more campus police. I want people trained in these types of situations, who know how to use judgement when taking out a shooter as to best protect those panicking around them...people who have to go through annual training on such things...not some civilian who is just as nervous as the kids!

So there are my arguments. Take them or leave them! I know the die-hard gun right protectors will ignore any and all logic I have presented here. Maybe some on the fence will understand. We need sensible reform! I would like to see a ban on semi-automatic weapons, and a ban on any mag that holds more than 15 rounds. I would like to see mandatory registration and licensing, which would include regular mental evaluations to keep said license. I would like to see the age limits for purchasing guns raised to at least 21. I would like to see the background check changed to include multiple agencies, especially including the military systems for discharges and court maritals, instead of just assuming that agencies are doing their job in entering data into the central database. I would like to see the policy put back into place that required the SSA to report SSDI recipients getting benefits for certain mental disorders. I would like to see closed school campuses, and more campus security. These are sensible changes! I'm not coming after all of your guns! I would just like to see something done that would limit the damage one can do with a gun, and also make it harder for "evil people who do evil things" from getting said guns!

More Loss!!

You already know how I feel about our gun laws. If you need a refresher:

How I Would Change Gun Laws

Have to Stay on This Gun Issue For Now

Your Argument is Invalid

I'm not going to rehash that all here. However, today I learned another very disturbing fact! It is LEGAL for an 18 year old to purchase a semi-automatic rifle! How is that possible?! Oh, because it falls under the category of "long gun". You have to be 21 to purchase a hand gun, but you can buy an AR at 18!! You have to be 21 to purchase alcohol, but you can buy a weapon that can quickly spit out 30 rounds at 18, and the ammo to go with it!

When you think about this, consider that the average age in this day that people are finally moving out of their parents' house is around 25! Reasons for this range from inability to support one's self financially to not being mentally prepared to be out on their own!! At 18, a person hasn't even had a chance to prove themselves mentally stable enough to own such a weapon! If they had done stupid stuff in their teen years, most of these records exist only in the schools, and if the law was involved, in many, MANY cases the records are expunged upon the person turning 18...blown off a childish bullshit. At 18, there is not enough "history" to determine if the person should or should not pass a background check!

So, add this to my list of changes to the gun laws...if you are going to maintain that semi-automatics remain legally available to the population, the law should be changed to make the minimum age of purchase AND/OR ownership no less than 30 years of age for said weapons. This should allow time for maturing and for any "cracks" in the person's mental status to start showing themselves on an official stage! We obviously had another case of someone who had obvious issues (just read about his disturbing social media posts), yet, he was allowed to legally buy a semi-automatic rifle! BRILLIANT!