Posted on 06/14/2014 12:41:39 PM PDT by holymoly
A news item that emerged a few days ago seemed to encapsulate the increasing helplessness that has gripped America as gun violence reaches new heights.
An Oklahoma company reported that sales of its new product, bullet-proof blankets to protect school children during mass shootings, have “far exceeded our wildest expectations.” Some school officials have determined that the best response to the potential threat of a deranged gunman is to spend $1,000 each on Bodyguard Blankets.
Under normal circumstances, the nation would be engaged in a soul-searching debate about guns, based on the most recent shooting incident.
Which shooting? Santa Barbara? Las Vegas? Troutdale, Oregon? Or all of the above?
Welcome to the new normal.
We have reached a point, with mass shootings occurring nearly on a weekly basis, where our basic freedoms as Americans have collided. The Second Amendment right to bear arms, as rigorously observed, is pushing aside the simple liberty of public safety in everyday life. At the same time, we have lost our collective ability to express outrage when yet another Columbine-style story hits the news.
We’re sliding into a national realm in which the unhinged in our society, mostly young males, believe a nagging emotional problem – even if it’s something as common as girls not liking you – can be solved by pulling a trigger.
A report released last week found that 74 school shootings (including those involving personal issues related to faculty) have occurred nationwide since the Newtown massacre of 18 months ago. President Obama’s response? “We should be ashamed.” The response in Congress? Not much.
So, I have a few questions:
If a parent feels a twinge of fear every day that they send their teenager to school or a family is on edge when going to a shopping center, how does that square with life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
When our nation experiences more than 200 shootings per day, have we put far too much weight on gun rights to the detriment of simply having the ability to go to the theater or take a walk on a sunny day?
With our violent culture -- as demonstrated by movies, video games, misogynistic music, a massive prison population and our epidemic of sexual assaults on campuses and in the military -- does the 21st Century United States really deserve an all-encompassing Second Amendment?
With all the anger and anxiety and psychosis simmering in American society, does it make sense that we allow the unfettered purchase of war-style rifles, ammunition drums that fire 100 shots, ultra-deadly hollow-point bullets, and semi-automatic pistols that are more powerful than the guns carried by some police officers?
Certainly, all of our constitutional rights have limits. The 4th Amendment grants me the right to privacy, but it does not prevent the police from obtaining a search warrant for my house. The 1st Amendment gives me the right to free speech, but it does not allow me to slander someone.
Does the Second Amendment, as written for the 18th Century lifestyle, give me the right to carry a modern weapon of war – a semi-automatic, assault-style rifle, slung over my shoulder -- into a restaurant where young children are eating with Mom and Dad?
How can we take pride in a nation where our elected officials won’t close the vast loophole in the background checks system, preventing criminals and those prone to violence from purchasing weapons, or address a woeful mental health system which allows the emotionally disturbed to purchase high-powered firearms?
Mental health professionals warn that far too many severely mentally ill men and boys across America do not receive treatment, particularly emergency treatment when an emotional crisis hits. These are unstable individuals suffering from psychosis – paranoid, ostracized, often isolated, hearing voices and overwhelmed by angry impulses – who “resort to violence to assert their distorted sense of power over their powerlessness,” one psychologist said recently.
Yet, the gun rights groups reneged on their post-Newtown pledge to work with the political establishment to craft legislation making mental health care more accessible and keeping guns out of the hands of these human powder-kegs.
In Colorado, state legislation was introduced earlier this year to establish clear limits on gun rights for the mentally disturbed, and the NRA pounced, blocking the measure. A Colorado-based gun advocacy group outflanked the NRA on the right and defeated a second, watered-down version of the bill.
These state-based gun groups are driving the Second Amendment debate in an ominous direction. The antics of Texas group that recently showed up in restaurants with AR-15-type weapons, a dramatic effort to demonstrate that “open carry” has no limits, drew sharp criticism from the NRA as “dubious,” “scary” and “downright weird.”
But the return fire was so furious, with Open Carry Texas claiming the NRA has become too liberal, that the NRA quickly removed the commentary from its website and blamed it on a single, wayward employee.
These fanatics who dream of their Clint Eastwood moment will never draw the line. They believe that their Second Amendment freedoms are boundless, not just for those with sound minds and adult dispositions.
So, one last question: When did our nation become so weak, collectively and politically, that we allowed the gun nuts to put their agenda ahead of our rights?
At this pace, we’ll all be buying Bodyguard Blankets soon.
Yeah, if we want the first then we have to keep the second. Btw I agree with your username.
No memory ... Talk is finished!
Gypsy ... Let’s talk Velvet ... and Paper Flowers. It all comes down to you and all of U.S.
Without the Second, none of the others are enforceable.
Take this Freedom With a Little Fear .... Enough to Fly!
It’s a Snow Given.
Your story might be appropriate.
Stand Back ... and it is All Right ... Can’t tell no more Travis! Is All Right!
Yes, Did more than I could do.
It needs it more than ever.
Understand I am the Gypsy .... Travis only tells a story.
And it all come down to you. Stating what you are for. See your pride? I have no pride!
I like this one (which I found only recently):
I just keep forgetting to use it.
Memories? I still refuse to surrender!
Thank You ... None should Stand Back.
LOL Laz ... Standing in line is tiresome. La ... La ... Lay
That part about the dragging ... No chance to see what I lost ... cause I lost ... and Thank You.
Amen!
He was afraid to click my link? What for?
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