Driving west on Route 84 in Connecticut, I have often seen a sign directing towards 'Historic Old Newtown' which I have always called the 'oxymoron' town, which is why I recognized where this tragedy had transpired. There has been little else on the media since the massacre occurred at Sandy Hook School. When I heard This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Meet the Press with David Gregory it became clear the focus was on more than this event, sad as it was.
As a country we need to change our focus away from violence. We have teenagers nearing high school graduation who have never known our country when we have not been at war. Hollywood glorifies and glamorizes death and destruction. We have made it seem unreal. It is easy to watch the news as though watching a movie, unreal if it doesn't touch you directly. The knee-jerk reaction for control freaks is to ban guns. Did they not learn a lesson as children reading Sleeping Beauty?
Our second amendment gives us the right to bear arms. That does not mean weapons of war, just personal protection. That has yet to be defined. A person can be strangled. We cannot outlaw hands. Knives kill yet every house has them. Scissors can stab and kill people yet we need them for many tasks. nOn planes a four inch blade and knitting needles have been prohibited. Does this not tell us that the problem is far greater than the weapon itself? We need to educate people to have coping skills other than knee-jerk reactions to fear. Allowing humans to carry weapons of war that can kill many with one magazine clip would slow down death, not eliminate it at the hands of one determined to kill many.
I will be looking forward to seeing Diana Feinstein's bill to the Senate and a similar bill in the House in January. We must all remember, this is an important first step. The greedy NRA will fight it and threaten to give less money for those in favor of the bills to campaign for office. If one looks at the problem empirically, it demands changes to campaign funding, a closer look at candidates and their goals for office, education on multiple levels of citizenship, morality, integrity and those many things many of our current politicians lack. This is a subject we must focus on with more regulation, not less. This subject must not be dropped. It must often be continued here and in many other venues.
As a country we need to change our focus away from violence. We have teenagers nearing high school graduation who have never known our country when we have not been at war. Hollywood glorifies and glamorizes death and destruction. We have made it seem unreal. It is easy to watch the news as though watching a movie, unreal if it doesn't touch you directly. The knee-jerk reaction for control freaks is to ban guns. Did they not learn a lesson as children reading Sleeping Beauty?
Our second amendment gives us the right to bear arms. That does not mean weapons of war, just personal protection. That has yet to be defined. A person can be strangled. We cannot outlaw hands. Knives kill yet every house has them. Scissors can stab and kill people yet we need them for many tasks. nOn planes a four inch blade and knitting needles have been prohibited. Does this not tell us that the problem is far greater than the weapon itself? We need to educate people to have coping skills other than knee-jerk reactions to fear. Allowing humans to carry weapons of war that can kill many with one magazine clip would slow down death, not eliminate it at the hands of one determined to kill many.
I will be looking forward to seeing Diana Feinstein's bill to the Senate and a similar bill in the House in January. We must all remember, this is an important first step. The greedy NRA will fight it and threaten to give less money for those in favor of the bills to campaign for office. If one looks at the problem empirically, it demands changes to campaign funding, a closer look at candidates and their goals for office, education on multiple levels of citizenship, morality, integrity and those many things many of our current politicians lack. This is a subject we must focus on with more regulation, not less. This subject must not be dropped. It must often be continued here and in many other venues.
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