Sunday, December 23, 2012

It needed to be said

This isn't the sort of thing that you really want to hear, or even say right before Christmas. I just think it needed to be said, because the people who should be making such statements are not willing to do so.

Last Friday I watched the news as reports poured in about the tragedy at Sandy Hook. The initial reports were muddled, confused, and would mostly be rewritten in the following days. There were two things, however, that became very clear; Something truly horrid had occurred at an elementary school in CT and it was going to be a political football used to create a new assault weapons ban.

The families of the victims deserve better than that. In fact all of the people who's lives have been impacted by media and politically exploited crimes deserve better.

Look at these faces.


These are men who killed innocent people. Not one of these men was forced to pick up a gun and shoot people. They CHOSE to commit atrocities. Regardless of how they came to be this way, they are evil. They are not the only ones.

You can try to make people feel safer by outlawing black rifles. Evil people will still exist. They will use any means available to bring harm to others. The modern world is full of tools that can be used for constructive or destructive purposes. Cars can become weapons, gas can become Molotov cocktails, fertilizer can become explosives, and planes can become guided missiles. You can't get rid of technology, and all the laws in the world won't stop determined people from using it.

What you can do is accept that there are bad people in the world, prepare yourself as best you can to deal with whatever evil confronts you, and because you can never be prepared for every possibility, learn to cherish each day you have and the good people that you share it with.

7 comments:

BobG said...

Good advice, those people have no class or taste, and will go to any lengths to try and ban firearms and our civil liberties.

Sandy and I both wish you and yours a good Christmas and holiday season.

Jennifer said...

Absolutely correct.

Home on the Range said...

That which most would describe as evil, the disregarding of all that is not self, thirst for recognition and a lust for power/control over others has been with man since the beginning of time. One year from now, ten or a hundred years from now, they’ll still be with us, but they’ll manifest in a different fashion using whatever tools are available to them, under or outside the law.

I only pray I still have my tools of protection.

drjim said...

Rather than realizing there are truly evil people in the world, those who would render us defenseless sit in the corner, with their eyes closed, ears closed, brains closed, and keep chanting "more laws, more laws, more laws....".
I think a large part of it goes to the removal of religion from schools, for without an understanding that both good and evil exist, people are clueless about the true nature of life.

Keads said...

Indeed. I have watched students come through my Concealed Carry Class that came to the conclusion (some the hard way) that the little piece of paper signed by a judge and all of that did little to stop evil.

Well said.

Firehand said...

I've run across a number of people who very much want to pass laws about guns/knives/whatever, and I think most of them do so for one of two reasons(sometimes both):
It's so much easier to blame an object than the ones who use the object; ban something and "We have fixed it!" even though you haven't, and besides, it's so judgemental to actually BLAME someone for doing something, isn't it?
and
They really, really don't want to deal with that idea of 'evil'.

Woman I used to know asked why something we'd just heard on the news bothered me so; I said it reminded me of Beslan, and what how the enemy would love to pull that off here. She said "I just don't want to think about that, so I don't listen to that stuff on the news."
I admit, I was amazed. And shocked. One thing to say "I'm trying to keep that out of mind right now", something like that, but to simply ignore that there are bad people out there, and what they do and want to do...

NotClauswitz said...

Great Satan has a pretty good write-up by a mental health professional who deals with suicide prevention: It's suicidal violence we're looking at. The shooter in Newtown was suicidal first, homicidal second. This is true of most mass murderers and about 30% of domestic violence related murder-suicides...