Well, I have been accused of ranting on FB because I disagree with the impassioned anti-gun group. First, because I disagree with you does not mean I am ranting ... anymore than suggesting that banning guns, banning the NRA, banning ANYTHING is a rant ... both are opinions. Furthermore, just because I am pro gun does NOT mean I am anti gun REFORM .... In point of fact, being on one side does not automatically preclude me from sharing similar ideas with people on another side - there IS substantial middle ground.... and until we COLLECTIVELY find and share that middle ground gun reform is dead in the water.
Second, if it actually IS ranting, it's not ranting to arm everyone and it's not ranting to outlaw guns --- it's ranting because this senseless slaughter of children and innocents pisses me off - not because they were killed with guns but because they were killed BY US for flatly REFUSING to even discuss SENSIBLE gun reform INCLUDING a full on assault against EVERYONE violating existing gun laws and UPDATING our national ability to track illegal firearms, guns used in crimes and seizures, etc. quickly and efficiently. I get why pro gun advocates don't like mandatory gun registration but if it saves even one single life of one single child isn't it worth at least considering? So I guess, yeah, maybe my middle of the road opinion that we are screwing the pooch on this one IS a rant but it's a rant for solutions that WORK-- not this f*cking bickering about being right or wrong..
Why, you ask, do I think it's dead if we stay divided into 2 factions a) arm everyone and b) ban guns? Because neither is going to happen in our lifetime and to believe otherwise is just foolish .... There are millions of gun owners who fall in that middle ground, responsible gun owners who have NOTHING to do with the current politicized NRA (rather than the old NRA which touted gun safety and responsible gun ownership). Men and women who own guns but also see how our world has changed from responsible leadership and parenting to a society that glorifies violence and let's kids raise themselves with the assistance of XBox, Netflix and cable TV. Gun owners who see a society that systematically desensitizes our youth to the reality of death. Gun owners who see a society so bitterly divided over the issue that they are afraid to even voice a moderately dissenting opinion for fear of being labeled by "the other side" and slammed squarely into the "right wing gun nut" category. Gun owners who see reasonable solutions that fall into both classes but don't want to speak out for fear of being accused of RANTING ...
This subject does not have to be as divisive as the two warring factions are making it and it does not have to mean an all or none ultimatum but we will continue to see blood shed, children die, innocents slaughtered and NO change if we keep this my way or the highway attitude. BOTH sides -the far right (all guns, all the time) AND the far left (no guns, ever) are responsible for this mess because NEITHER side is listening to reason, thinking through and DISCUSSING the problem and instead are reacting emotionally with criticism and judgment. Middle ground gun "advocates" who have no problem with gun reform (like myself) seem to have no place in this debate at all, yet we are the ones making the most common sense in the matter.
Resorting to name calling, accusing dissenters (on either side) of ranting, closing minds to REASONABLE solutions and planting yourself firmly in an all or none foundation will NEVER solve this problem and I don't care if Australia, Canada, the UK or Japan banned guns and it worked or DID NOT work ... we are not Australians or Canadians. We don't think like them, we don't live like they do or educate our children in the same manner, we don't have the same histories of breaking free from "tyrannical" governments, and although we have similar social issues they don't have social issues to the same extent that we face... but we CAN learn from them and maybe come up with ideas that won't alienate one another on the gun issue but I think I can safely promise that NOTHING -- ABSOLUTELY NOTHING will get done as long as the middle grounders are silent .... and as long as we try to silence dissenting opinions.
Elie Wiesel, writer, activist and Nobel Laureate and former prisoner in the Auschwitz and Buchenwald concentration camps said it best. “We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” I am on the side of the slaughtered and those who I can guarantee WILL BE slaughtered if the millions of sensible gun owners remain silent and refuse to take a stand for responsible gun ownership and REASONABLE gun control laws including unrelenting enforcement of existing gun laws.
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