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Showing Original Post only (View all)This Gun-Nut has had enough. [View all]
Last edited Sat Dec 15, 2012, 01:27 PM - Edit history (1)
I own a few firearms. I enjoy shooting sports. I support the 2nd Amendment, just as I support the entire Bill of Rights. Without all of the Amendments, I could not vote, I would have a hard time finding a job, hell... I'd probably be picking cotton at Rush Limbaugh's house.
But with every right there are limits. Today was not the tipping point in my views, but it was the tipping point for me to speak my mind. I am a former NRA member. I enjoyed the gun safety classes, training classes and the range officer program that they have. Not too long ago, however they started inundating me with transparent lies. Their magazine used to be full of shooting tips, advice on safety and general information. Now every edition of American Rifleman looks like a fucking GOP talking point flier. They used to be about firearms and shooting sports, but as of late it is nothing but them trying to shove every right-wing dip-shit lie into every page. My wife and I both let our memberships lapse.
I'll fully admit that one of my two favorite forums here on DU is the Gun Control & RKBA. The other is Cooking and Baking (if you believe that). But as of perhaps the past year or so, my posts in the gun group have been mostly snark and humor as to me it seems to be a little too right-wing down there. Back when I first joined DU, the dialog was different, there were a lot more ideas to float around and discuss, but lately it is just a bunch of bullshit on both sides of the fence.
What happened today was and absolute horror, that I feel could have been prevented. I do not have all of the answers, but they are out there. We just have to work to find them.
As a country we NEED to have the discussion, we NEED to find workable solutions. Knee jerk solutions rarely work, but we should not let it slip by yet again. It would be an insult to the victims of this tragedy and all of the tragedies preceding it.
If in the end it makes it harder for me to buy a gun. So fucking what? I can live with that much easier than I can live with the fact that some nut job strolled into a gun shop and walked out with a gun 10 minutes later.
I'd beg our president to get all the players involved, be they victims, gun right supporters(not the NRA... They can go fuck themselves), doctors, gun control supporters, psychiatrists, house and senate members, and lock them all up in a room until they could come up with a solution to this problem.
Some of my fellow gun-nuts will have a problem with this. They'll say that the odds of being killed in a mass shooting are more rare than winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. This may be true, hell, I've probably said it in the past myself. But right now, I don't give a fuck. Because what happened today is a rare event (when looking at violent crime as a whole), but its effect on the American people is too devastating to ignore.
What happened today is not an acceptable byproduct of our rights.
In case you haven't noticed my thoughts are all over the place, as I cannot think straight. I'm still deeply saddened and completely angry right now. But if I had one wish for the future, is that our leadership actually have the balls to have the discussion, and not tip-toe around the NRA. I know that there has to be a solution that will work, but it will never be found if there is no discussion.
Part 2 can be found here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021990149