I’m sure the world is aware of the senseless gun violence that has gripped the United States in its clutches. Yesterday we had another mass shooting in a Texas elementary school, taking the lives of at least 19 children; children, the future of our society. These budding souls won’t be around to become contributors to our country in ways that only God knows.
What follows is the content of a Facebook post my oldest child, Felicia Long Johnson, made shortly after the incident in Texas. Please note that the numbers of lives lost in her post aren’t in sync with what I previously stated; that’s because the final count hadn’t been made when Felicia made her post. I have chosen to use her verbiage exactly as she posted it.
“Texas…14 lives…now 14…now…
Now we are back to debating gun laws. Debating morality while 14 people are laying in the morgue less than 9 hours after being slaughtered.
Do we really think guns are the problem?
Should we double down on parental oversight?
Should parents regulate violent video games their children play?
Should parents do better about social media time?
Should we fund school for installation of metal detectors?
Should we stop the bs and realize some of our kids are bullies and mean girls and do something about it?
The debates on stronger gun laws does nothing but continue to divide us while our coroners scrape up the remains of students and grocery shoppers.
Why are we looking to the federal government for more regulation when we won’t teach responsibility, civility, and coping skills at home?
The utter madness cannot and will not be solved by the government and its bureaucracy.
This is up to you and me. This is our community.
What will we do?“
I’m old and blessed…hope you will.
P. S. I think we have too many guns in the United States. Thirty two percent of Americans say they own a firearm according to the 2021 National firearms survey. As of January 7, 2022, there was estimated to be 400 million guns in the U.S. between police, the military, and American civilians. Are we our own worst enemy?
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One of the things I found very shocking on my various trips to the USA has been how casually gun ownership is treated. To me, coming from the UK where not even the police routinely carry arms, it was scary seeing holsters with guns on police in European countries. I was horrified to find my laid-back American friends keeping handguns in their cars as a matter of course. And presumably, they are prepared to use them , otherwise why have them? Mass shootings also appear to be a predominantly American “pastime”. How on earth does your government justify the present gun laws? How many little kids have to be murdered before changes are made to the laws?
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My heart aches.
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Well said and amen.
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Good to hear from you, my friend.
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While your daughter is spot-on about personal responsibility and teaching respect and self-control at home, I also agree that we have too many guns in this country. Kids in European countries are exposed to pretty much the same social media, bullying, violent video games, etc. as our kids are. The cases of mass murder by weapon outside of war there are miniscule compared to our stats. Why? Fewer people own guns and those who do own them own fewer guns and their uses are restricted and the hoops required to purchase them are far more entangled and complicated.
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My husband was a Marine Corp rifleman in Vietnam. Now, he doesn’t even want a gun for hunting.
As for me, I have had a total of five traumatic encounters with guns. The first happened when I was 12 and my dad was trying to kill my mother. He was arrested the next morning.
My last gun trauma happened when I was 25. I was working for a home builder, north of Chicago. Some of the buyers were very upset after they moved into their expensive lakeside houses and found serious issues, such as raw sewage running through the ceiling after flushing an upstairs toilet. These angry buyers were calling and coming into the office, where I worked all alone, demanding that I tell them where the builder was. I honestly did not know.
One evening, as I was walking back to the parking lot after locking the model homes prior to closing, a car driving by slowed, stopped — and through the open window I saw a handgun pointing at me. BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM BLAM — I heard the shots and saw the muzzle flashes. Thank God none of the bullets hit me! I ran to my car. As the shooter roared away, I jumped into my little Toyota and made my escape. And I never went back to that job again.
I’m not even going to get into the other three gun traumas. Suffice it to say, I agree with what you said at the end. We have far too many guns in this country. We also have far too many trigger happy fools.
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Oops, being shot at when I was 25 wasn’t my last one. I was in my late 30s when the last gun trauma happened. A precious young mother, a neighbor of ours, was shot and killed. My then 13-year-old daughter was a witness. As the shooter ran past her, he pointed his handgun at my daughter and said “You don’t see nothin, girl.” She immediately fainted, which may have saved her life.
Yeah, I am not a fan of guns.
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