Several days ago a 19 year old shot up a school that he was previously expelled from. In response Democratic activists demanded more gun control, but the reason I decided to write this article is not because their arguments are anything new. I’ve addressed the gun control debate, or “common sense gun safety legislation” time and time again. What bothers me is how far beyond politics this has gotten. We are no longer looking for a solution, and have now turned to half the country blaming the deaths of children on the other half of the country. Like every other issue in this country mainstream media tries to control what is and isn’t truth. They own the fact checkers, the textbook publishers, the news networks and pretty much every popular search engine. One side is considered the only side, and anyone who goes against it is not just considered wrong, but a terrorist. You might not believe me. You might think I’m strawman-ing Democrats, but this is exactly what they’re saying.
Model, TV presenter and columnist Rebecca Griffin Tweeted: “Woman puts baby up for adoption, he grows up to be a violent young man who will spend the rest of his life in prison for a mass murder. Tell me more about how abortions are wrong.”
So I guess anyone who’s adopted should be dead, and anyone who decided to adopt is to blame for school shootings?
When reporters told the story of Andrew Pollack, a father who lost his daughter in the shooting, twitter users then began to reticule him for wearing a Trump t-shirt. “I don’t feel sorry for him and f*** trump, wrote @eastsidedogg.” “Maybe should have thought twice before voting for #TerroristTrump, wrote @SolRayz.”
Very similar instances to these posts went viral across Facebook and Twitter. Specifically about the NRA.
CBS reports protesters gathered around NRA headquarters calling on the NRA to “stop killing our kids.”
“The NRA is a terrorist organization. Eff you NRA.” Posts Claude Taylor. Other posts going viral across Facebook claiming the GOP/ NRA kill more people than Muslims and Immigrants.
So why did I feel like bringing up the gun control debate again? Not because I’m trying to push an agenda. Not because I haven’t done this before. But because people are only believing one side and think that’s enough reason to call millions of people terrorists. This is the reason for concern when politicians like Bill Clinton follow up by saying, “Courage and conviction led to an assault weapons ban once before. Let’s do it again.” You’re not placing blame on the murderer, or anything that could drive someone to murder, but instead the law (which we all know only affects people who obey the law). Anyone who’s done the research over and over again knows how deceiving these statements are. Left-wing activists act like an Assault Weapons Ban could fix every problem, and therefore anyone who disagrees is dipping their “hands in the blood of the dying children of Sandy Hook” (literally a quote from medium.com). However let me defend myself, 5 million NRA members and 60 million Republican leaning voters just for a minute.
An Assault Weapons Ban would not have preventing this shooting, or possibly any other mass shooting. Under the first Assault Weapons Ban, passed by Bill Clinton, the Columbine Shooting took place. This was one of the first major school shootings that shook the nation. Recently Dianne Feinstein introduced a new Assault Weapons Ban, this bill named specific firearms that would be and wouldn’t be aloud. This list pointed out how the credibility of these bans are completely based on emotions. While the AR-15, Hi-point Carbine, and pretty much any rifle made by Kel-Tec would be banned under this bill, the M1 Garand, M1 Carbine and Ruger Mini 14 would not. This school shooter was obsessive, he would have just as easily purchased a Ruger Mini 14 with the same result. The same goes for the Columbine killers who plotted out their assault for months (and were teens illegally obtaining all their firearms to begin with). The point is these bans are ineffective and are only a grab for authority by big government politicians.
Another viral post was that liberals don’t blame guns, they blame people who do not believe in instituting mandator safety courses, stricter punishments and thorough background checks. I’ve already covered this, but ignoring the God-given rights factor to arms, safety courses wouldn’t have prevented this mass shooting. This shooter already knew how to handle a firearm. And why would we want killers to take a gun safely class? Don’t we want them to fail? Plus the NRA DOES want good people to take safety classes, we just don’t want it mandated by the government. Rights should not require a license, and if you need government permission to exorcise a right, then that is an infringement on that right. The NRA has thousands of instructors and trains millions of people. They aren’t just a rag-tag team of extremists. As for stricter punishments, I think some are too strict. Like how a Philadelphia mother was facing three years in prison because her gun was stored differently when crossing state lines.
Thorough background checks is an issue the NRA brought up 2 years ago. Wayne LaPierre went over how most felony convictions are not reported to the system, and instead of more background checks we just need to enforce the system we currently have. I am open for discussion on using background checks to keep mentally incompetent people from purchasing firearms, however much of what we have on the books is being ignored. If gun-control advocates in Congress know this then they must have some alternative motive for ignoring past laws to enforce new ones. We already can keep mentally unstable people from purchasing firearms, it would just require us to hold those looking into the matter accountable (like the FBI). Anyone who tries to purchase a firearm, and is not legally aloud to purchase a firearm, is committing a felony and are suppose to be arrested on the spot. Too many times this does not happen because no one reported them to the database. The NRA openly said this and wants it fix. They even lobbied for background checks to begin with. In our most recent case the shooter couldn’t have been reported because the FBI, school and doctors didn’t take his threat seriously. If you’re going to blame someone who isn’t the shooter, blame them. However I still wouldn’t recommend tossing blame around like that.
In modern day we often jump straight to political answers, but our government was never suppose to be an answer. We have divided ourselves in half. We battle over legislation after tragedies instead of sitting around the table with our families and asking ourselves “how can we help this country.” We can fix everything that is wrong by ourselves, especially when the government is out of the way. If families were stable, and people were raised to love one another, we would have less people capable of such heinous crimes. We can’t ignore the fact mental disorders are increasing the more we think we understand them. Addressing how these mentally unstable people get this way is by far the source to tackle. You can pass laws, but that does very little for our culture. What do you think is going to happen when after every mass murder more people take their kindergarteners to protest their political rivals? These kids will never place responsibility on the correct people. They will resent half the country. I know for a fact this new culture is not a safe one considering the mobs of left-wing college students rioting after Trump’s election. Secular culture has successfully made “punch a nazi” an acceptable response, since everyone who disagrees with them is equated to one. Hollywood actor David Harbour even called for this at an awards ceremony. Maybe if we taught our kids that these things are wrong, instead of placing the blame on political opponents, our country could be free and safe again. We don’t have to divide the country, we just have to make more good guys. When the family unit is non-existent people look for answers elsewhere; if those voices are violent or harmful there’s no telling what they could create. If the family unit is violent or harmful to begin with they could easily create the same effect.
Modern weaponry existed before school shootings were prevalent. We have a social issues that can be solved without government, and it starts with the people.