Yet Another School Shooting...

Here we are again. Barely a month into the new school year and we are visited by the familiar specter of another school shooting. This time at Apalachee High School in Winder Georgia.

A 14 year old boy who, according to new reporting, had already been on the FBI's radar the year previous when the shooter had been reported for threats made on Discord. New reporting from CNN indicates that the gun the suspect used in the shooting, was purchased this past holiday season FOR the suspect...this is AFTER the FBI had visited with the parents and let them know he had been suspected of threatening to shoot up his school.

That is baffling to me. And of course the discourse will be, as it has been already, "Thoughts and Prayers". It has been a little over 25 years since the Columbine Massacre (notice, we no longer call these occurrences Masacres. They are just routine, like a hurricane) and in those 25 years there have been roughly 400 school shootings (the numbers vary by what's considered but rough number). The thoughts and prayers have done nothing to reduce or eliminate the threat of school shootings.

So when are we going to get off our asses and stop letting the NRA and Rightwing Politicians fear monger us away from doing anything substantive in reducing and, G-d willing, eliminating these from occurring anymore in this country. I thought perhaps after the slaughter of elementary school children in Sandyhook we would be ready. But as is usual, the NRA (and those politicians funded by them) swooped in to say "This isn't the time to politicize the issue!!! We need G-D CONTROL, not Gun Control".

I am not a proponent of taking away anyone who is of sound mind and legal ages guns. I think you will find most people, even on the Left, are not for that. But the absolute free for all we have in terms of gun legislation right now is not sustainable. Common sense reforms must take place. Waiting periods, closing gunshow loopholes and more stringent background checks are just commonsense things that we should have long since been doing.

If you have a history of mental illness and domestic violence, you should not have unfettered access to guns. We also don't need the same guns as the military. Despite what some on the right would have you believe, the streets of America are not a war zone. Weapons who are solely designed as death instruments, to erase as many people as possible as quickly and as efficiently as possible, should not be in the hands of your average citizens. A hand gun for self defense? Okay. A hunting rifle? Okay. Military style weapons? Nope.

Apathy is the disease that is afflicting this country. Hatred being sown by those in power is the disease that is afflicting this country. From our leaders, by their media mouth pieces, and by those both foreign and domestic that wish to see this nation fall and crumble. We can't allow that to happen. This is not a complicated issue. This shouldn't be a Left/Right issue. This should be a we are not going to take it anymore. No more kids, no more fellow citizens need die needlessly.

Let us not forget those lost, and those injured. Now is exactly the time to do the work so there are NO MORE people killed needlessly in a place where one should ever fear for their safety. I am not a professional, but I have listened to those who are, and we owe it to our fellow Americans, no matter the age, that when they leave their homes they be able to feel secure that they will return home that night. Maybe I am a dreamer...