A great deal has to do with young people’s experiences versus ours. Let’s start with guns.
When I was a kid, the NRA was about safety training, hunting and antique weapons. What is it now? Fighting to make guns more available without training or registration. Having teenagers buy guns. Pushing for assault rifles and high capacity magazines to be readily available for anyone with money. If you have a grudge against your boss, buy a gun. If others humiliate you, have a gun. If you’re an ambitious gang banger needing protection, get a gun.
When I was a kid in school, we had atomic bomb drills with “Duck and cover,” but we never saw daily reports on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Now days, every school has “Active shooter drills,” just in case. Watch TV, how many reports of shooting are there daily! Shootings are now real in rich schools, dangerous neighborhoods and stopping for gas. 948 school shootings have taken place since Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012. Over 300,000 young people have experienced an active shooter in their own school. Shootings are the leading cause of death for children and teenagers. It is believed that over 4 million kids live in a home with a loaded and unlocked gun. If you are young, shootings are not some theoretical threat. It is personal!
How should a young person feel when politicians allow their safety and life to be constantly threatened? Should they feel warm and fuzzy or totally disgusted and angry.
Here is a map of recent school shootings with the size of the circle showing number of deaths.
Map and shooting information info here.
Most kids know at least one student who is unstable, antisocial or angry and who is old enough to buy a gun or borrow one from their parent. How would you feel in your work place knowing that someone? Would you help an old woman being beaten, knowing that a gun is available? How much of our humanity is being suppressed because of NRA and government indifference?
The 2nd Amendment doesn’t stop responsible people from owning a gun. Maybe we should allow car ownership the same way as we currently allow gun ownership, just to be equitable.
