Making
Sense
“Except
now, a few days later, nothing seems normal. Nothing seems safe.
Nothing makes sense.”
Mark
McCarter (The Huntsville Times)
The
school shootings in Connecticut weigh heavy on our hearts today. Not
only were there six adults and twenty innocent children gunned down, but all around
the country, homicides escalated. Here in Birmingham, a man, unhappy
with his sick wife's care, walked into a hospital and shot three people. There have been fifty-six gun-related homicides in 2012, in this town of 250,000. And, yet 83% of people polled yesterday by AL.com
said we need more guns, not fewer.
One
member of my extended family, a physician no less, went out yesterday
and bought himself another gun—this one semi-automatic—to add to
his arsenal. He is not alone by any means. There were more than
10,800,000 non-military guns sold in the US in 2011 alone. The
FBI estimates that there are now in excess of 310,000,000 guns in the
hands of American citizens.
For
my part, I believe that it is time for those of us who can no longer
stomach the violence to stand up and speak out. If you think as I do,
you can go the the White House website, We the People, and sign a
petition advocating gun control for semi-automatic weapons. The site
is http://wh.gov/NR6U, or you can simply
google We the People, and it will bring up the site. No one wants to
take away guns used for legitimate hunting, but semi-automatic
weapons are meant for one thing only—to kill people.
I
know that the constitution provides for an armed citizenry to protect
against government invasion as well as to protect one's home. But
that was in response to British troops being billeted in people's homes, and there were no automatic or semi-automatic weapons at the time. The second and third amendments were ratified in 1791, after all. Billeting troops in
private homes hasn't happened in this country since the Civil War.
Please,
let this be the last time we hang our heads in shame in response to
the killing of innocents. We are better than this, and we deserve to
live in peace and safety. If you believe as I do, let your voice be
heard.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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