I think we need more people to come out and say “Enough is Enough”. So I’m going to add my words to the gun control argument.

An 8 year old was shot over puppies by an 11 year old. Because you know who should have unrestricted gun access? An 11 year old.  The 6 year old playing in her front yard shot by who knows… The guy shot outside a professional football game egged on by crowds and alcohol. Here’s the thing, I could continue to find more and more and more links of shootings. There are too many.

Here’s the Preamble of the Constitution

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The second amendment give you the right to a gun. If you extrapolate from that, you have the right to a gun so that justice is established and not vigilante justice, we can take care of our nation. You have a right to a gun so that we are guaranteeing to all general welfare and secure the blessings of liberty for ourselves and our prosperity.

Well, I’d say the sheer volume of guns in this country is actively preventing Justice, general welfare, and it sure as hell isn’t securing the blessings of liberty for myself or my kids.

My kids have lock down drills once a month so that if a bad guy with a gun comes into their school they know what to do. Sure doesn’t sound like the Blessings of Liberty for my posterity. My kids should not have to go into lock down so you can have a gun. My kids’ lives should NEVER depend on their collective ability to be quiet so the gunman doesn’t come into their room. I should NEVER have to hear a police office say the school had to cut shrubbery a bit more so that the window was better accessible should they need to gain quiet entrance to the building to stop an intruder. This, this, is what our world has come to.

When 3 different colleges had shooters in one day, I said a prayer that the outburst wouldn’t appear on my daughter’s campus. Really? What part of that is securing the blessings of liberty for my progeny?

With all the guns in this nation, you know how often single shooters or mass shooters are stopped by a civilian with a gun? Me neither, but I’m pretty sure it’s not often. I assume that if were, the NRA would be citing those numbers left and right to make sure that we understood how “good” guns were. If more guns were the answer, we’d be the safest nation in the country, but alas, we prove over and over and over again we aren’t.

You know why I’m talking about guns and not cars (they kill people, too right?) Cars have a purpose unrelated to killing something. They get people places. They take us to work, they take us to soccer practice, or orchestra events. They don’t leave the our garages for the sole purpose of killing. Guns? They have 1 purpose. To kill. While you could argue that killing a deer provides food, and it does, it still achieved its sole purpose. It killed. Tell me that guns don’t kill people, people kill people? That’s absurd. People with guns kill. Sometimes in a moment of anger or a moment of curiosity, but the presence of that gun gave that person the best opportunity of taking a life. A gun is immediate, it’s impersonal, it’s easy to keep your distance. A knife, my fists, I have to be up in your grill to do any damage. A gun, I have the luxury of distance.

You want to talk about mental illness being the problem? Explain to me how little kids have a mental illness when they shoot. Explain to me how all preteens have a mental illness when they shoot. Explain to me how people who are drinking or in a fight or pissed off have a mental illness when they shoot.

Maybe bullying is the problem. Nope, not always. Maybe it’s a lack of two parents involved with their kids? Hrm – but wait, the dad was at home with the kids when one shot the other in a moment of curiosity.

I think we need to be triage mode. We have people dying daily because of guns. Daily. We have thousands of people in hospitals recovering from bullet wounds. Daily. We have kids scared to walk down the street to go to school. Here’s what’s obvious to me. If we can’t fix the underlying problems ‘right now’ like treating mental illness, like preventing bullying, like preventing kids from getting mad, then we need to stop the outlet. And that’s access to guns.

Your way isn’t working. Unfettered access to guns isn’t working. Arming everyone isn’t working.

Your right to a gun SHOULD NOT, CAN NOT, WILL NOT supersede my kids’ right to life. The one guaranteed to them by the same Constitution you use to keep your guns.