We've been here before

Recommended reading if you haven't already run across it on Facebook or elsewhere:

Fuck you, I like guns.

I may have said this before, after some other school shooting, or a mass murder in a gay nightclub, or a massacre at a movie theater, but I'll say it again: I'm not anti-gun. I don't want to take your guns away--not exactly. But I do want to see something meaningful happen here. The majority of people in our government are more interested these days in restricting the voting rights of a large segment of our population than giving even the barest hint of increasing control on gun ownership in the slightest. Yes, that's a convoluted sentence; it's supposed to be. It matches the thinking of lawmakers who insist this is not the time to talk about this; of a president who first shifts blame to the community, then to law enforcement, and then manages to make it about himself.

Gun rights have long been seen as a Red vs. Blue, liberal vs. conservative, Republican vs. Democrat issue. It's time to stop thinking about it in party lines. It's time, really, to stop thinking about everything in party lines, because this, I fear, is where the true downfall of our country comes in, but maybe that's the basis for another post, or a stunning piece of fiction. It's time to start thinking about it as a human issue, because that's what it is.

After last week's post, I told myself I wasn't going to be political, and that I was going to write about writing again. Sorry. Maybe next week.

Enough Already

I feel like I've used this title once already for something very similar. If so, that's sad--not that I'm repeating myself, but that I have to.

On Sunday, after watching a flood of anti-Obama memes fly across my Facebook feed, I posted the following (this is verbatim, except for one spelling error, and a link that was not in the original):

Since Thursday, my Facebook feed has been flooded with comments and shares and likes related to the terrible shooting in Roseburg. Unfortunately, most of these are not about the mass murder itself, but about President Obama's reaction and statement about it. Most of THOSE comments have been negative (which is putting it mildly).

I get that you don't like Obama, but here's the thing: THIS IS NOT ABOUT OBAMA. Put your hatred for the man aside and look instead at yet another pile of bodies—do you want to see that again? I get your concern about anything that may infringe on your constitutional right to bear arms, but don't you think this stuff has got to stop? Instead of firing off the usual, knee-jerk statements (you know how they go: "guns don't kill people..." and "when guns are outlawed..." and "It only takes one good man with a gun...", etc.) let me ask you this: WHAT DO YOU SUGGEST? Because what we got? It's not working. Status Quo? Not an option. Archie Bunker-style "Pass out the pistols"? Not an option.

Stop making it about Obama and start offering up ideas.

I don't necessarily subscribe to the idea that we should gather all the guns and melt them down--the vast majority of gun owners are, I'm sure, law-abiding citizens who would not take a life unless they felt they absolutely had no choice. And I don't know what the solution is. As I said, what we're doing now is not working.

I'm glad to say I actually got a couple of reasonable responses from people, one of whom is definitely anti-Obama (though he also pointed out his anti-Obama position is the result of what Obama as done, which is fair) and decidedly pro-gun. I didn't necessarily agree with all he had to say, but I respect the fact that he (mostly) kept to the issue, and that he didn't retreat to the "You'll pry my gun from my cold, dead hands!" position that so many others take. Let's hope more people in government can do the same. Something's gotta give.