Here We Go Again

    We shouldn't have to parent this way.  Here we are again, another mass shooting at an elementary school in America where a sick lunatic decided to purchase a weapon of mass destruction at his local gun shop and violently murder the most innocent people in our society, elementary school children with their entire lives ahead of them.  Here we are again, tucking our kids into bed with a heavy heart imagining what it might be like to have them ripped from your life so violently.  My own son is 10 years old and in the fourth grade.  He is the most loving, happiest, sensitive, kindest, child and literally ran into school yesterday because he loves it so much.  The past few weeks, his love of life has just reminded me over and over what was taken from those 4th graders in Uvalde, what was taken from their parents and how in Gods name they are going to continue on.  I have found it hard to think of anything else, just like after Parkland and after Sandy Hook.  Parents all across this nation are living each day just imagining what it would be like to send their children off to school where you think they are going to learn and grow, only to have them violently murdered in their classroom.  It's bullshit.  

    I'm raising my children in a country where it's a pretty common occurrence that someone decides to buy an gun that has one purpose, to kill as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time possible, and then shoots people in places of work, churches, schools, or concerts.  I honestly feel at this point that if my kids make it through their young life without a mass shooting, we can consider ourselves lucky.  I can't understand why the grown ups in this country can't seem to make any progress on at least trying to protect American citizens from this type of violence.  We have this twisted claim based on the 2nd amendment which was written 231 years ago that it's peoples "right" to purchase these dangerous weapons of war like an AR-15.  I don't think that weapons like an AR-15 should be sold to anyone, especially not some 18 year old child, and they don't belong on our streets or in our communities.  What do people love about these guns anyway?  It makes them feel cool to shoot them?  I would never want a gun like that in my home.  I don't understand the fascination with these weapons.  They are not designed for sport shooting or hunting, they are designed for murdering people.  Then laws that are proposed to at least try prevent mass shootings based on studies and statistics are voted against by Republicans because they want to be re-elected and don't want to piss off the loudest radicals in their party.    

    How do we fix this?  Maybe it's our entire 2 party political system failing.  Maybe this whole idea of a democracy is too big, too slow, too ineffective to actually protect the public and give a voice to popular opinion because the people I know don't want to see mass shootings happen anymore.  Maybe it's greed, the gun manufacturers, the NRA paying off politicians.  Maybe it's that politicians make a career out of what they do and only care about being re-elected instead of doing what's right or what's "unpopular" to their base even though maybe deep down they know it's the right thing to do.  I don't know.  The problem here is too big, too deep, too tall, that sometimes I just reach a point of despair.  I've joined Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense.  I plan to get as involved as I can.  I vote for law makers that will vote for common sense gun laws and gun safety measures.  I call my senators.  I donate money.  I won't vote for the guy who shoots AR-15 guns in his commercial. I'm not impressed by that.  I can only control what I do and then just hope it's not my school or my kids school next time.  Hopefully luck will be on our side. Because that's all it is....luck.