A vigil held outside of St Rose of Lima Roma Catholic Church via Sandy Hook Elementary School Memorial Page
Whatever side of the debate you fall on, let’s all agree on one point before it gets lost in the political maelstorm:
Gun control alone will not be a sufficient response to the tragedy of Newtown. Or of Portland. Or Aurora. Or Brookfield.
On the same day as Newtown’s tragedy, a man in China stabbed 28 kindergarten children, the third such attack in less than a month. The contrast inevitably to be drawn will be that all victims (so far) have survived that particular attack with the clear difference being that a knife is much less “efficient” than a gun in such matters. On the other hand, not a single shot had to be fired for 19 pre-school children to die among the 168 total civilian deaths during the Oklahoma City Bombing. The sad and painful fact is that people who want to hurt others will find a way. Sometimes with less result, sometimes with greater.
Now, before you furiously fill out that comment section, let me state very clearly and explicitly that I am in no way, shape or form a “gun nut.” In fact, I’m probably aggravatingly moderate on this topic. However whether you feel a full revocation of the Second Ammendment is necessary or that said ammendment gives you the right to build your own personal armory in the basement, the point is that we’re going to need a more sophisticated and multi-faceted response if we’re to truly address the problem that we’re facing.
Certainly, let’s discuss gun control and how to move forward on that matter. If we don’t after the year we’ve had, then there’s something deeply wrong with our society and political system. But, if we stop at revising gun laws, we’ve failed. Miserably.
Below is an article by Liza Long whose son, given a lack of any official diagnosis, will have to simply described as mercurial. The piece is both disturbing and moving. And it will hopefully make us consider how we handle such individuals as her boy.
She deserves our help now, not our pity later. So does he. So does every such family out there.
http://anarchistsoccermom.blogspot.com/
In the end, let’s not lose sight of the fact that while we’re going to disagree about the approach, we’re all on the same side regarding the goal: To make sure that what happened at Newtown never happens again.
Thanks again, Julio. The “aggravatingly moderate” solutions are probably the ones we need.
Thanks, Dale. I’ll settle for just civil discourse right about now.