The song has
nothing to do with what I want to talk about, but I needed a title for this
post, and that song came to mind. It’s
been a while, again, but I’m here because some things have been banging around
in my head. And it’s time to put it in
writing so maybe I’ll stop waking up in the morning wishing that I’d sit down
and say it already.
For years we’ve
been saying that we can’t do anything about these mass shootings. We’ve got a constitutional amendment that
prohibits us from making things better.
We can’t mess with perfection.
But if perfection is sitting by while innocent people get killed because
we don’t do anything about it, then I think I’m done with “perfection.”
There will
be those of you who say that gun laws and registration aren’t going to change
anything. Moreover, they’re going to
make things worse. And so far, you certainly
aren’t wrong, because the gun laws we do have don’t seem to be working. What this tells me is that maybe we need to
look at this from a new perspective.
Maybe it’s
time we look for new solutions to a problem which hasn’t been addressed because
certain people on both sides of the aisle have been neglecting their
responsibilities; it’s time we address the problems with gun ownership and gun
violence in this country. To say or do
otherwise is an injustice to every life lost due to careless governance.
I don’t have
all the answers, but at least I’m trying to find solutions. And I’m no scientist or expert, but I know
that reading about school shootings and mass shootings and church shootings and
terrorist attacks isn’t going to change anything. It is only when I stand up and say, “This isn’t
right. We need to change something,”
that change can occur.
Our Second Amendment
was written with the idea that each state would have a militia—a place where
people would gather to learn about and teach about weapons and warfare and
field medicine and how to ensure that people who are willing to stand up and
fight for something are doing it to make a better place for everyone—not just
some of us. The militia was meant to
serve as the first point of contact in emergencies—to be there when people in
their state needed help. And they were
the first line of defense when anyone, including the federal government, sought
to curtail the laws and rights of its citizens.
But rather
than choosing to work with the mindset of a militia, we’ve got people touting
the right of anyone and everyone to have weapons and use them, because it’s our
“God-given right.” Not even God in the Bible
allowed everyone in the tribes to fight for Him. He tasked his commanders with choosing those
who would be given weapons. And maybe it’s
time that we took a page from religion and realize that not everyone is willing
or able to handle the responsibility of having a weapon.
Maybe it’s
time that we change how we look at gun ownership in America.
I’d like to
leave that up to the States, of course, because that’s where the militia idea
first started. It seems fitting, then,
that states should have the right to decide how to run and govern their militia. But then you run into a lot of other problems
on a federal level—especially when it comes to federal crimes and gun-smuggling
across state lines (look at Chicago.)
But this is what I’m trying to say: it’s time we talked about this.
Because what
we’ve been doing hasn’t been working.
And I know there are greater minds out there than my own who can look
for a better solution than the antagonistic and morbid rhetoric we continue to
hear every time another innocent life is lost due to gun violence.
And maybe we
won’t get it right the first time; maybe we’ll have to try again. But if we continue to do nothing, then I posit
that we are no better than the people pulling the trigger and ending those
innocent lives.
