Another day, another horrible mass shooting. This one was in the small town of Roseburg, Oregon, on the Umpqua Community College campus. More than two dozen people were reportedly hit with gunfire. While victims are being rushed to the hospital, many right-wing pundits and politicians are no doubt readying their talking points to explain why the 264th mass shooting of the year does not mean the United States should tighten up access to deadly firearms. Well, guys, I hate to break it to you, but we heard you the first time. And the second time. And the hundreds of times since that our country has grappled with an individual eager to take out as many lives as possible with a firearm. We can recite your arguments in our sleep, and they haven’t grown better through repetition.
It seems that every time a massacre along the lines of what happened at Umpqua Community College happens, we’re told by Very Serious People that we shouldn’t allow our emotions to dictate our reactions. It’s TOO SOON, in the view of these “experts;” decisions should never be made and laws should never be pass in the heat of the moment. No, tis far better to wait until time passes and people move on emotions cool and subside, lest we run the risk of politicizing this sort of bloodshed, which would most certainly dishonor the victims. Oh, and there’s the Four Holy Tenants of Gun Worship ©, handed down to us by God His Own Self, and while they’re not currently taught to our children from birth, they certainly should be:
1) “Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”
Yeah, but a gun makes things a whole helluva lot easier, eh? This ridiculousness, of course, ignores the reality that most of those with evil intent attack people with what you think will have the most impact and do the most damage in the shortest amount of time. If you doubt me, just trying committing mass murder in a mall with a rubber garden hose and see how far you get. It’s so easy to call “bullshit” on this argument, it should almost be criminal.
2) “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Never mind that no mass shooting in the past 30 years has been stopped by a “good guy with a gun.” The idea that a civilian untrained in combat situations will ipso facto appropriately, responsibly, and heroically is so fantastical as to be unworthy of serious consideration. When bullets start flying and chaos reigns, people die, and a “good guy with a gun” is an effective defense only in the overheated imaginations of Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes ©.
3) “But, mental health!”
Sure, mental health is absolutely a factor…but if Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © are so convinced of this, why are they leading the parade for increased spending on mental health care? The truth it, “But, mental health!” is merely a diversion, just another means for Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © to deflect the conversation down a safe path, thus ensuring nothing will change.
4) “Second Amendment, baby.”
The mental and moral gymnastics Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © engage in to justify their immoral, twisted interpretation of the 2nd Amendment is as truly astonishing as it is deeply disturbing. Under no circumstances can or should the 2nd Amendment be interpreted as providing a blank check allowing any weapon to be carried anywhere for any reason at any time. There’s no sensible argument that could explain anyone should be allowed to carry and AR-15 into an airport (I’m looking at you, Georgia). Beyond that, cherry-picking isn’t a defensible argument; how is it that Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © complete ignore the first 13 words of the 2nd Amendment and yet cling to the final 14 as if their very lives depended on it? To these hypocrites, I’d ask but one question:
What well-regulated militia do YOU belong to?
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans who favor common sense gun control have fallen mute in the face of these four morally vacant and incredibly facile arguments. How many more innocents will have to die before we stand up to the screaming, rage-addicted ninnies and Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © and tell them their day has passed; that now the adults will make the decisions?
Not one more innocent American should die because Proudly Closed-minded Gun Control Foes © are more wedded to their self-interest and inhumanity than to human life. That won’t happen until we stand up and make ourselves heard. It’s long past time.
