Gun Violence in America,Where the Shit Hits the Fan..

If not now, When?

20 innocent white children died yesterday because another privileged white boy took his parent's weapons and acted out, horrifying America. Babies died. Teachers died. It was an almost unheard of attack on a school, except that it had happened before, at Columbine and Virginia Tech. Two days earlier another one walked into a mall in another non-urban area and killed two before killing himself. Other crazy white boys have turned churches into shooting ranges to demonstrate their hate of people who are different.

What makes this so horrifying was the age of the latest victims, 5-10 years old. Even President Obama teared up while delivering the country's condolences via nationwide news coverage.

Yet, Obama's press secretary shut down the press who dared to ask for a response, by saying “today is not the day.”

I am truly sorry so many little white kids died, yesterday. I really am. But the day to hold this conversation on gun violence in America was this past summer when gun death stalked the streets of Chicago. The day to hold this conversation was when the crazy white supremacist walked into a Sikh Temple and killed innocent people of color.

The time to hold this conversation was when Amadou DiAllou was killed at his front door, or when Sean Bell died in his car the night before he was to get married, or when Trayvon Martin was killed while walking home, or the young man was executed in the back seat of his friend's car, down in Florida, a few weeks ago.

The time to hold this conversation is the next time a bullet rips through a wall and kills a kid thought to be safe inside her own bedroom

The time to hold this conversation is whenever the Mothers of murdered children hold a march and vigil in the neighborhoods of the inner city, commemorating the lives of their dead children, just as innocent and cut down in life way to soon.

These victims, people of color, usually, are equally as innocent as the ones who died at Sandy Hook, or Columbine or Virginia Tech, but they are totally forgotten. The daily body count is not even mentioned in the same breath with what happened in these communities “where things such as this just never happen.”

Mass murders seem to be increasing in upscale communities, and I guess I should welcome the coming storm of media coverage that follows rich white people and their children when they die. However,  daily killings go on in urban centers unabated, and unreported, and all we get is silence from Washington.

Another crazy white boy takes out a Congresswoman and nine others, and all you hear from Congress is silence when one of their own is cut down.

Nothing. Nada.

Neither side of the congressional aisle had anything to say when Gabbie Giffords was shot, or yesterday, proving that Democrats are as bought and paid for by the National Rifle Association as Republicans. Everybody who calls himself a politician suckles at the NRA money tit, regardless of the outcry coming from the people they are supposed to represent.

The second amendment was not meant to be stretched this far or used for the purpose of allowing crazies to arm themselves with big guns in order to kill the rest of us. I've got no problem with hunters or home protection. But the question that has to be answered is, what “game” are you hunting for with an AK-47 or a gun that fires wall piercing bullets?

Which brings me back to the President. Having recently won re election in a landslide, isn't it time to speak up on the things that people care about, namely gun violence, stopping the wars altogether, and rebuilding infrastructure, mental health issues, climate change and the environment?

Not like the prez is going to lose any votes by addressing what we think is in his heart. The blue collar and rich white men who hate him now, are not gonna change their minds if he stays silent on gun control.

They're already pissed off, so let's go all the way and piss them off some more.

We the people gave Obama his Teflon coat of armor. Now is the time to put it on and take down some of the demons that plague us as a country. Time to make some real, meaningful change.

Top of the list, gun violence and mental health.

How about it Mr. President?

Guns, Gun Control and American Family Life

Let me say up front, this is not a rant about the need for gun control in America. There is a need for gun control, however, I long ago came to the conclusion that gun addiction is like any other addiction, you can't cure it until those addicted ask for help.

The first step is for those addicted to realize that they have a sickness in the first place, and since the vast majority of gun owners in America are law abiding citizens, they don't think they are sick or are doing anything wrong by amassing arsenals of destruction. Which means there is no problem and therefore no need for gun control.

When you ask, the arsenals are for personal protection or hunting and just in case.

Just in case what, I ask.

Well, just in case....there is no answer that they want to give to that question. Not really, because then they would have to admit that they live in fear...in fear of their neighbors....in fear of a black planet....in fear of a white planet...in  fear of nameless, faceless criminals bent on taking their stuff away from them.

They live in fear of the coming anarchy and revelation, the end of times. They live in fear of the return of Jesus, when they will have to give up their stuff and move to heaven, which is supposed to be a good thing.

However, if they were really honest, they would tell you, they don't really want to go there, either, until they have to, and only after they figure out a way to hitch a u-haul up to the hearse to carry their stuff with them.

So in the meantime, they buy guns and wait, for whatever.

And as they wait, they infect the next a generation with their sickness, primarily today, via video games and a lax attitude about violence and the agents of violence.

The first two words out of my youngest nephew's mouth when he first started forming thoughts and words on his own were, Walmart, Jo, and weapons. He wanted weapons to play games on the computer. Never used the word guns...He wanted and still wants weapons, which is a computer word...only now at the age of 11, he wants real weapons. I know because we've talked about it. Walmart was the place where you go buy stuff...Jo is my name...He had no concept of “aunt”. I was just Jo, at the time.

Owning guns are okay in his mind, because his parents own them. His grandparents own them, too. His Granddad, my father, is a hunter, a sportsman. He has what I can only describe as an arsenal of weapons, many of which were handed down from other men in my family. Men who never figured out how to take their guns with them when they died.

My uncle was a police officer, one of the first Black officers in Cincinnati. My dad has his collection of guns. My grandfather was a country boy who used to be a hootch and moonshine runner back during prohibition. Granddad needed guns for protection against the feds and others who might have tried to jack his illegal cargo. My grandmother used to talk about the bullet holes in the side of the car. My dad now has my grandfather's guns.

My father hunts rabbits, pheasant, shoots groundhogs and moles to keep them from tearing up his perfectly mowed lawn. My father just likes to buy guns. He never shoots them anymore. Just likes owning them, cleaning them and showing them off to his equally enamored grandsons.

I remember walking down into the family room, when our latest marine was visiting recently. A serious boy thing was going on. Nearly the whole floor of the family room was covered in guns, rifles, handguns. Old guns, new guns. I had no idea. The guns are never shown off when the women are home. The marine is a marksman and actually taught shooting on Paris Island. He was very at home amidst the guns and my dad's enthusiasm. And, it goes without saying that he is a man, all man..a grandson. Guns are something for men to talk about.

My dad is a member of the National Rifle Association. Law abiding. Keeps his guns in a vault-a locked vault to protect the young ones. When I was a kid, the gun was simply left on the shelf in the closet in my parent's room and we knew not to even think about touching it.

Kids today, are a different story. They have to touch and handle, regardless of what they are told to do or not to do. So dad locks them up, now. Progress of a kind, I guess.

My father and I are on different sides of the gun control argument. In order for gun control to happen, I would have to convince my father that he has a real illness with his need to own so many guns. But he, and others like him, nearly all the members of the NRA, don't believe they are sick, in any way shape or form.

They won't admit to being fearful either.

They are comfortable in hiding behind the rationale that people who use guns to kill people are either criminals or crazy, not like them, the law abiding citizens of the NRA. The law abiding need their guns to protect themselves and their families from the criminals and the crazies and to go hunting once in a great while.They don't distinguish between owning a 30 ought six or 12 gauge from owning an AR 15 assault rifle. They are all just guns, or weapons as my nephews say.

Guns don't kill people...people kill people. Fear the people, not the guns.

And that is why the shooters in Aurora, or Columbine, or the beltway snipers will have easy access to weapons, because guns are part of the American lifestyle of everyday American citizens.

Everybody has em, nobody uses em.....like any other tool in the garage... just there when you need it.