Thoughts on the Las Vegas Massacre

I try to keep politics out of this travel blog but sometimes something so horrific happens that I must not keep silent.

In 1994 my friend and employee received the life changing, horrific news his lovely, 12 year old boy had been killed by a gun that his best friend’s father had left loaded and unsecured. The boys were simply curious as all 12 year old boys would be. The news effected me to a level I could not have imagined and my disgust has never diminished.

Rather than buying a memorial bench or planting a tree, I purchased and distributed to local police departments 500 trigger locks and joined an organization, Stop Handgun Violence, that promoted better gun safety in the hopes that no other parent would suffer as my friend’s family and the shooter’s had suffered. I did not do this for accolades and pats on the back I did it because it was an actually concrete step. The only one I knew I could do. Massachusetts once again proved it’s citizens leaned toward gun responsibility, and sanity rather than the other way like the state of Nevada where there are almost no gun restrictions, by requiring that if a firearm is not in your personal possession, it must be locked up. But the law did nothing to prevent gun crimes (excepting maybe stolen guns), only reduce gun accidents. And since this beautiful child was killed, leaving his and the shooter’s families permanently scarred, nationally nothing much as changed.

Since that fateful day, approximately 550,000 Americans have died in America from a gun with many times that number were shot but survived. Over 11,700 so far this year. 550,000. Look it up. This is not FAKE NEWS! That is far more than  the number of Americans killed in the 20 years America was involved in the shameful war we inflicted on the people of Viet Nam.

When will this change? The 2 dozen children and teachers killed in their school, Sandy Hook, in Newtown CT. that generated the meaningless mantra of “Never Again” resulted in zero gun restrictions. This weekend’s Las Vegas killer had two dozen auto, semi automatic weapons and enough bullets to kill 58 and injure 500 more in only 10 minutes. Why was this OK?

An America that is more focused on hating football players who took a knee during the playing of the Anthem whilst they protested the rampant discrimination that to this day still oozes like poison across our country, while claiming that the wearing of the flag as clothing is somehow not disrespecting it, is warped. The twisted misinterpretation of the 2nd Amendment, glossing over the section that refers to “a well regulated militia” and focus on the “right” to bear arms the likes of which the founders of this country could not have conceived of is a very damaged and pathetic nation.

I can only hope, without any real hope, that yesterday’s heinous and cowardly act will finally motivate the 2/3 of Americans who do not own guns to steel their the collective spines to take action. To just say no to the most unregulated and gun violent country in the world. GOAL & NRA et al, spout the nonsense that guns don’t kill people, people do, conveniently overlooking the fact that if the access to guns was not so damn easy, if the guns were more like the one shot guns our forefathers fought with for our independence, fewer people would die. Plain and simple. Fewer families would not have to live with the horror of loss.

America, when will you wake up? So many other countries that have long taken the steps of reducing the number, scope and access to guns look at us as fools. They are right. We are a country of fools.

I cry for America and mourn it’s loss of humanity. A country that calls itself Christian is, on this issue, anything but.