Is This What We Want for Children at School?
Update: from the NY Times, asking parents of your child's playmates about guns in their home.
From a mom in Michigan (via Facebook, bold mine):
I
took this picture because initially I thought it was funny. I was
going to send it to my husband to show what our mischievous little
three-year-old was up to. However, The moment she told me what she was
doing I broke down. She was practicing for a lockdown drill at her
preschool and what you should do if you are stuck in a bathroom. At
that moment all innocence of what I thought my three-year-old possessed was gone.
Politicians - take a look. This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grand children and future generations to come. They will live their lives and grow up in this world based on your decisions. They are barely 3 and they will hide in bathroom stalls standing on top of toilet seats. I do not know what will be harder for them? Trying to remain quiet for an extended amount of time or trying to keep their balance without letting a foot slip below the stall door?
No one thinks gun control will be 100% crime control. But maybe, just maybe, it helps 1% or 2% or 50%? Who knows unless we try? Why on earth are there not universal background checks? Where is a universal registration database? Why are high capacity magazines ever permitted to be sold to anyone other than direct to the military? Is that really necessary to protect yourself or hunt for that matter? What about smart guns, where are they? C’mon techies!
Politicians - take a look. This is your child, your children, your grandchildren, your great grand children and future generations to come. They will live their lives and grow up in this world based on your decisions. They are barely 3 and they will hide in bathroom stalls standing on top of toilet seats. I do not know what will be harder for them? Trying to remain quiet for an extended amount of time or trying to keep their balance without letting a foot slip below the stall door?
No one thinks gun control will be 100% crime control. But maybe, just maybe, it helps 1% or 2% or 50%? Who knows unless we try? Why on earth are there not universal background checks? Where is a universal registration database? Why are high capacity magazines ever permitted to be sold to anyone other than direct to the military? Is that really necessary to protect yourself or hunt for that matter? What about smart guns, where are they? C’mon techies!
The 2nd Amendment is a beast to
battle and wiping out the right to bear arms is not on the table. Does
anyone really think that will be accomplished? Because it won’t.
Amended to some extent? Maybe. But how many decades will that take?
Where’s the evolution of our so called “living document” for this
subject matter? A document that originally allowed slavery and
prevented women from voting? NRA, are you even trying? Let’s talk
mental health. Where is the $500 million that the Obama administration
put into the budget for approval…did it go through? Is it being
implemented or just sitting there? Where is the access to care for
those struggling with mental illness? Politicians, I ask you...how can I
help?
Banning together, signing petitions, rallying to get your voice heard is good, but is it actually doing anything or just making us feel better about the current situation? We need action. I applaud politicians like Senator Chris Murphy but so many of our elected politicians can’t manage to work together (maybe they shouldn’t be paid for a job they can't do…just saying) or since they are in bed with all the wrong people, it is up to us if we want change. I want to know what new smart technology is being built for safer guns, advanced security in public places, databases, traveling care for the mentally ill…anything! Entrepreneurs, innovators, are you there? Can I help? Can I help you make a difference? I want to offer support. I cannot give you techie advice, expertise in healthcare, or financial backing, BUT maybe I can point you in the right direction? Maybe I know someone who knows someone who can help? Incubators, investors…if this issue concerns you, do what you do best and help make change. Can I help? Hold funding competitions, provide think tanks for these very things. Hollywood, the PSA’s are good, but not good enough. Eventually they disappear and are forgotten.
I am not pretending to have all the answers or even a shred of them, but unless you want your children standing on top of a toilet, we need to do something! Please share. #dosomething #prayfororlando #wecandobetter Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
Banning together, signing petitions, rallying to get your voice heard is good, but is it actually doing anything or just making us feel better about the current situation? We need action. I applaud politicians like Senator Chris Murphy but so many of our elected politicians can’t manage to work together (maybe they shouldn’t be paid for a job they can't do…just saying) or since they are in bed with all the wrong people, it is up to us if we want change. I want to know what new smart technology is being built for safer guns, advanced security in public places, databases, traveling care for the mentally ill…anything! Entrepreneurs, innovators, are you there? Can I help? Can I help you make a difference? I want to offer support. I cannot give you techie advice, expertise in healthcare, or financial backing, BUT maybe I can point you in the right direction? Maybe I know someone who knows someone who can help? Incubators, investors…if this issue concerns you, do what you do best and help make change. Can I help? Hold funding competitions, provide think tanks for these very things. Hollywood, the PSA’s are good, but not good enough. Eventually they disappear and are forgotten.
I am not pretending to have all the answers or even a shred of them, but unless you want your children standing on top of a toilet, we need to do something! Please share. #dosomething #prayfororlando #wecandobetter Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America
Comments
Yes, something MUST be done.
People need to realize suicide by gun is the most common form of death by firearm and it only takes one bullet. To stop the most common form of death by firearm requires us to address the reasons behind suicide. There are several studies linking suicide with school bulling, academic failures or teenage drug addiction. That might be the place to start.
Limiting the capacity of magazines unfortunately would not have saved anyone in New town or Orlando. When a shooter faces ZERO resistance they could be using a single shot rifle and still kill as many people as bullets.
When police sit outside the building for 3 hours in fear of being killed by a bomb there's not much hope. You would think after seeing the results of a person being shot someones morality might override the hatred and they would stop, but it never seems to happen that way.
Like it or not, the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun.
Realist
First, in Orlando, the security guard had a gun and engaged with that idiot. So did police. Trained people who couldn't take him down. You think in a dark club with people running everywhere, one person could take a clear shot at a shooter?
I don't need studies on suicide. That's a completely different issue and you introducing it is a - look, squirrel! - tactic.
What we CAN do:
- if you are on the terrorist no-fly list, no guns for you.
- no more rapid-fire guns, period. Those are war guns, not hunting or self-protection guns.
There was a good person with a gun at Orlando. A security guard could not stop the shooter. Also at Columbine.
A single shot rifle will never kill as many people as a shooter with unlimited bullets and no need to reload. We need to stop this insanity of unlimited firepower.
Suicide is always tragic but too many people are also taking other people’s lives. Gun control is needed.
S parent
But (yes -- there IS a but -- ) that does not in any way take away from the need to address homicidal deaths by guns -- any more than the need to address death by cancer would diminish the need to address the problem of death by stroke or heart disease. We can -- and must -- have the ability to work on more than one crisis at a time.
As for "the only thing that stops a bad person with a gun is a good person with a gun" -- the problem is the assumption in the subject of the sentence. If you rethink and reword it -- two things can stop a bad person from killing others with a gun: (1) He/she never gets his/her hands on one, and (2) IF (and only if) that fails -- he/she is stopped by some other means (a "good person with a gun" being one, albeit a dangerous one if they are not trained to avoid collateral damage. Because reality is always more nuanced than slogans, it should also be pointed out that a bad person with a gun who has to reload after 1, 6, or 10 bullets is highly likely to be less lethal (and easier for your good person to deal with) than a bad person who can shoot 30, 60, or 100 bullets without pausing or taking their finger off the trigger.
Many many people who own guns and enjoy shooting sports support sensible gun regulation. There are still guns (and shooting) in Australia. There just aren't any more mass killings of the kind that the US now seems to excel in.