So, and that happened

Title will make sense along the way.

So, crazy guy, with a mother that has less than adequate control of her firearms, around her deranged son, gets Mama's weapons.  He goes to a school, because that is the sum total of experience in his life.  Then he shoots people.  Kids.

And, that folks, was Sandyhook.  Remember that?  That was less than 3 years ago.  Just last week, another deranged guy, with a mother with totally inadequate control of her firearms around her deranged son, gets Mama's weapons.  He goes to a school, because he is in school still at like 26, and shoots people.  Kids.

Today, two school shootings, both deadly.  Some crazy, deranged bastard, gets guns, goes to a school, and kills people.  I can't even keep up with where it is occurring, but one was in Texas.  Pictures of the nutbag online with his assault style rifle.  They shot people.  Kids.

Presidential candidate, I would literally submit that he is the smartest man in whatever room you put him in, and that includes the freight elevator with Steven Hawkins, he seems to think he has a solution.  Rush the guy shooting at you.  Like, he would have rushed the guy, he might get me, but he won't get us all.  Like this is a damn solution.  Oh, wait, a vet that was there did just that.  Took 7 rounds, probably saved many lives, but others still got shot.  This same genius, yeah, he thinks that if there had been a proliferation of weapons in Germany, between the World Wars, that the Holocaust could have been averted.

I mean this is truly a smart guy.  He is a neurosurgeon, and really, really good at it.  Did the first seperation of conjoined twins, connected at the head.  I have a huge respect for his skill, his legacy, his Christian values and faith, and his committment to the country.  I am not being sarcastic.  But, this idea that guns are a solution, that somehow manning up and "Let's roll" is a solution, is categorically and pathologically ridiculous.

When Ronald Reagan got shot, Jim Brady was permanently injured with traumatic brain injury.  We did not talk about it like that then, we just said he got shot in the head.  That guy and his wife, they went to Congress, looked people in the eye and passed the Brady Bill, common sense laws for controls of firearms.  Reagan also signed an automatic weapons ban.  We have done this before, for real.  And, these were adults, well aware that their public position and role protecting those in that position was inherently endangered.  They were not going to school to learn the Pythagorean theorem.

How many of you have thought to yourself that if only we could somehow arm the people in the school, we can just make this so much better?  Do your remember your teachers from school?  Some of my children are teachers, they are not wired, configured, trained or otherwise remotely able to roger up to battlezone decisions and emotionally wired to shoot a 12 year old killing people.  Hell, the cops aren't, neither are the military folks that have to do that in war zones.

Putting more guns into the mix will not fix this.  I do not suggest that we should repeal the Constitutional protections to hold and bear arms.  But, to somehow suggest that the Founders, who were concerned that the mostly agrarian colonies retained the ability to rapidly mobilize a citizen army to protect against the European powers with standing professional armies, would somehow suggest that having automatic weapons freely floating in the population is okay, just stretches credulity.   If you think that Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe, and for that matter, Adams and Franklin, were not gun control proponents is ignorance of history.  Gun control was just fine to make sure black people didn't get them.

Most of the weaponry was stockpiled in community armories, that were used for military purposes.  The weapons the rest of the population maintained they were hunting weapons.  And the weapons were not necesarily different.  As the technology and killing potential spiked, it was illegal to own and maintain military armament.  Personal arms were returned to the parolees after the Civil War.  The stacked arms were retained by the government.

This is not uncharted territory.  Sensible background check requirements, ban on civilian possession of weaponry designed for battle space, ban on high quantity magazines, registration and required safety and gun-handling training should not be beyond our reach.

If you need rounds that will penetrate bunkers, you are too crappy a shot or hunter to be hunting.  If you need 30 rounds to get it done, you are too crappy a shot or hunter to be hunting.  And I am someone that grew up hunting, and probably could still shoot with most anyone that wants to put some downrange.  If you come up  with a reason we should not verify criminal and mental status before allowing gun purchase, please relay that to me.

For those in North Carolina that 3 weeks ago were having a fit because we were not going to do driver's education in school for our kids anymore, and you are not having a fit that you do not have training and competency testing for gun registration, there is something wrong with your logic.  The rest of the nation, if you don't see the sense in requiring safety and use training for gun ownership, you must be on the legalize marijuana, heroin and cocaine bandwagon.  Get government out of everything.  But, best not to apply for that government aid in the flood recovery, you are just enabling Big Brother to come for your weapons.

If you listened to President Obama, and did not understand what he said, let me break it down for you.  These are not crime perpetrated by the Crips and Bloods.  Telling me or him that criminals can get weapons, like that addresses crazy kids with no sane reason to have access to weaponry taking them and shooting other kids, is just ignorant.

Oh, lets talk about the church shooting then, and how that is different...wait, crazy ass kid, access to weapons, lots of warning signs, shoots people.  Oh, different because it is not kids.  That makes it so different, nope, wait, it was in a Bible study in a church.  I am not sure that is not worse than shooting kids.

Remember, we are not our brother's keeper.  But, we are also not his law enforcement either.  Keeping and bearing arms, in school, because it is better for the librarian to start rattling off rounds, cause the kid with the gunbrella sat down, than it is to look back at 200 years of relative safety, with common sense gun laws, beggars my imagination.  If you don't know what the gunbrella is, it happened at a local university, when they locked it down because a kid was carrying an umbrella and that got confused with an automatic weapon.  I swear, it is true.  My daughter was there.

Do you want a campus full of guns coming out of lock boxes, for the first time in six months as a response to that?  Do you need me to tell you what would have happened?  And, teachers don't get more than one planning day a quarter.  The government is not going to cart them out with any kind of regularity to teach them shooting and keep them sharp.

So, kids got killed.  That happened.  The President, who I understand is reviled by huge numbers of people, said the truth.  I don't agree with him totally.  But, I can guarantee that you will not hear more truth from any politician on this subject than you did from the President.  And, if it made you feel uncomfortably guilty, and convicted, you get it.  If your solution involves more guns...I will listen, but you are missing the point.  All that does it ensure someone dies by gun violence.

If you can't understand that all the phases in play here have to be addressed...I will listen, but you are missing the point. The sick are still not getting treated.  People with no business having guns have ready access to them.  We have huge sections of the population that do not have to have background checks to buy firearms, yet we require it at most churches to be Sunday School leaders.  Can you imagine not requirinig background checks for police?  But, it is ridiculous for the creepy guy on the corner that never mows his grass to have to, to get a gun too?

If you have never been to an actual gun show, do not speak to me about not closing the gun show loop.  If you have been to an actual gun show, and felt at all comfortable around the majority of the crowd, I fear I may never be able to understand you.

Finally, I had to go to school, pass a performance test, pay for a license, and insurance, to drive a car. Yet, it is entirely ridiculous to require the  same for a gun.  Hell, it is harder and with more bureaucracy for a man and woman to get married, than there is to purchase a gun.  I won't argue about licenses for same sex couples, because that is orders of more magnitude difficult.

If you have ever looked at a report about the babies rescued from the house that the parents were cooking meth in, and thought you ought to have to have a license to have a kid, you have a heart.  You might want to consider that, when you consider there is the same level of control of guns.  It causes the same kinds of issues, because we are unwilling to deal with the causes and long term issues.

Oh, and a bunch of highly educated, skillful and articulate people in Washington cannot only not figure out what to begin to do to address this, they can't pick a person to be the leader of the chaos.  Yeah, and most of the people causing the most trouble not being able to even function the government that controls the purse and legislation, they are the most committed to getting more guns and less regulations in neighborhoods near you.

So, and that happened.  Love you all.