This is not the political issue many would pretend.
It is time for a national debate about sensible policies and our fears.
Do we want to raise a generation of fearful children?
Do we want to continue to be a nation with high per capita incarceration rates, states impoverished by over-crowded court dockets, prison costs and the cost of violence on city streets?
We can change this by working together to restore the values of the US as a nation.
Tue Dec 18, 2012
The picture posted on FB by an NRA friend that set me off
This facebook picture was posted ONE day after the tragedy last Friday.
The NRA leadership went silent right after the tragedy--this was NOT out of respect, this was biding their time. But those of us who know members in that organization, you know they wasted no time. While we barely had a chance to grieve, I got one posting after another saying that gun owners are being assaulted.
(Adn you thought mentally unbalanced gun owners did the assaulting?)
My facebook friend posted this picture with was a plea for us to “just consider” as a solution in wake of the tragedy on Friday. Yes. This is the mind of the NRA: an organization that is actively working to make it EASIER for criminals and the mentally handicapped to obtain assault rifles. Just like our forefathers envisioned.
If only every kindergarden-5th grade teacher carried an assault rifle, we’d be much safer.
Just like they are in Israel, or something.
I told her that Americans do not live in a warzone (except the one of the NRA’s making).
Furthermore, all Israelis receive at least 2 years of military training. If you met my daughter’s bubbly yet clumsy kindergarten teacher you wouldn’t want her carrying anything more loaded than a #2 pencil, much less an M16.
This isn’t a joke, this is actually what they think. The person who posted this on my page is a proud lifetime member of the NRA and there was not a hint of irony or cognitive dissonance displayed.
I normally don't engage in politics on facebook. But I was pretty ticked off and let her know it. Someone else posted a quote:
Liberal idiots: After a shooting spree, they always want to take the gun away from the people who didn’t do it
I responded that I actually wanted to take the gun away BEFORE the shooting spree. Again, stop and consider the “logic”: I shouldn’t focus on taking away anyone’s gun, except for the guy AFTER HE IS DONE shooting up the school, mall, neighborhood, etc. I was immediately and angrily assaulted by other gun nuts who posted that I am somehow blaming law-abiding gun owners and I was truly after taking their guns away. (Really?)
The second amendment is, even right now, the safest amendment in our Constitution. You can make no laws regarding guns… which is ironic, since the FIRST FUCKING sentence contains the words “well-regulated” (unlike the 1st amendment, which starts off “Congress shall make no law…” But that never stopped anyone.)
Yet, in the mind of the NRA, just saying that you shouldn’t make it easy for deranged criminals or the mentally ill to obtain arms equates to wanting to take everyone’s guns away.
I was repeatedly told that background checks were the devil, (can't imagine anything more evil), and that wouldn't have stopped Adam Lanza because he got his guns from his mother.
Actually, Adam was deterred from buying a rifle at Dick's Sporting Goods because of the background check. The only reason he got a hold of a cache of weapons, including an assault rifle, is that his mom was a bonafide gun nut who shared the same warped mentality these facebook posters did: let everyone have access to firearms, (even her obviously mentally ill son), and somehow, everyone will be safe.
She not only lost her life, but her weapons killed innocent children who screamed they didn’t want to die… they just wanted Christmas. (That still rips my heart apart.)
I engage everytime someone posts this gun nut crap. I can't help it. I'm ticked off and I will point out the paranoia, delusion, righteousness, and cognitive dissonance that makes me worry not only for my friend's safety but her children and those around her as well. Let me clear, I fear FOR her, but I don’t fear her and I don’t fear her pathetic, evil excuse of an organization.
And I will no longer abide cowardly politicians who do.
Sun Dec 16, 2012
"Take That N!gger Off the TV, We Wanna Watch Football!"
President Obama's potentially historic speech at the Newtown memorial, honoring victims of the Sandy Hook shooting, pre-empted NBC's Sunday Night Football matchup between the 49ers and Patriots.Now, NFL games are regularly the most-watched television events each week during football season, and there were bound to be plenty of narrow-minded souls upset that they would miss a bit of football.
However, as Deadspin quickly noted post speech, Obama's appearance ignited immediate, ugly bursts on Twitter that starkly revealed the undercurrents of racism that continue to tug and pull at our nation's feet.
Below are a just a few of the countless such Tweets that surfaced as Obama spoke:
The racist comments posted are so offensive and ignorant, if you want to read them, clink on the link below.
Now, forget for a moment the ridiculous circumstance – that many professional, black men populate tonight's football field as the 49ers and Patriots do battle.
And forget for a moment that these people are pure idiots.
What must be remembered is that this racism isn't just ugly and pervasive, it's also connected to the issue at hand. For as we rightly and painfully mourn for the children killed in Sandy Hook, we also must consider that a national moment of mourning has never taken place for the untold number of minority children who have died from gun violence in cities across America.
We must consider that President Obama's potentially historic speech – if his determined and steadfast calls for a national change are backed by policy pushes – will receive pushback not just from NRA-supporters, but from white men and women who (wrongly) fear having their power, their gun, stripped from them by a black man, President Obama.
There will be anger in the coming months. That is, if Democrats do their jobs and push forward with new gun control legislation.
Yes, there will be anger. And much of it will have undercurrents of racism.
Thx 2 everyone who brought the inappropriate tweet to our attention. @UNAAthletics does not condone. He is no longer a member of the team.
Fill-in-the-blank generic gun massacre cartoon, by Tom Tomorrow
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