Well, I suppose some miscreant figured the best way to celebrate America’s Fourth of July/Independence Day was to shoot at a bunch of folks in a parade in Highland Park, Illinois. Who knows why someone felt the urge to visit an act of random violence on people who were just out to celebrate the holiday?
I don’t know the details yet; however, early news reports say that six people were killed and more than thirty were injured. I’m intentionally not trying to get the numbers accurate, since they may change as time moves on. Even if the number was only one shot or killed, that would be too many. I probably shouldn’t admit this, but when I got out of bed this morning, I thought about whether we would have another mass shooting in our country today. Afterall, what better time for some misguided soul, with a high-powered weapon to express himself. Meantime, the debate goes on about gun control in our country.
For years, I’ve listened to the argument about the importance of an armed militia, the importance of Americans having access to protection owning a gun provides. Unless I’ve missed a report or two, I’ve not heard any account of someone with a gun stopping a mass shooter. These folks perpetrate the worse crimes of opportunity, leaving in the wake of their heinous acts shattered bodies, families, neighborhoods, as well as mental and emotional health issues that will linger for years to come.
I can’t help but think we (America) are excellent at putting on the best beautiful face we can, while the bad and the ugly continue to do things like what just happened in Highland Park, Illinois. When will it all end? All bets are that it won’t in my lifetime. If you’re reading this, not in yours either.
I’m old and blessed…hope you will be too.
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It is heartbreaking and infuriating. I HATE guns.
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Well said. As if we were not already heading in the wrong direction, the Supreme Court last week reinterpreted the First, Second, Fifth, Ninth, and 14th Amendments effectively gutting limits on gun possession, severely weakened the separation between church and state, taken away a woman’s right that has existed for nearly 50 years (abortion), and limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to slow climate change. As much as I try to understand, I am unable to do so.
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I grieve over the loss of what used to be.
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Yes. Not in my lifetime. It’s so sad and bizarre. I believe the gun proponents like to trot out “freedom” as the be-all, end-all reason to allow guns to proliferate unrestrained in America. But freedom from what? Rather than tyranny of a government we have a daily tyranny of well-armed lunatics. In no country in the world are there more deaths by single gunmen than in America. In no peace loving country in the world, is access to guns easier than in America. Why is it so hard to see the connection? What am I missing?
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I lived for many years in Philadelphia, and lost track of how many mothers lost children to gun violence there.
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