Long Live the Gun

Here we go again.

On Friday twelve people were killed by a madman with gun. Eleven of the twelve victims were public employees for the city of Virginia Beach, the other victim was a contractor working in the building at the time of the massacre. All twelve victims died from wounds related to being shot with a gun.

So far we do not know why this madman killed these twelve people. We do know the gunman used a .45 caliber handgun equipped with a suppressor (aka silencer) and was using extended ammunition clips. It is uncertain why the murderer used the suppressor, it does not truly silence a gun like the movies tell us, but the expended magazines were there so the gunman could reload less and kill more. The last thing we know for certain is that this madman killed twelve people with a gun.

Immediately after the massacre, political talking heads dug in and started to scream their positions on gun control. One person on the left says the massacre could have been avoided if we had tougher gun laws. Within seconds, hundreds of right wing zealots scream about politicizing the gun issue in the wake of tragedy. Trying to make sense of the tragedy is now impossible because the screaming match going on in our political culture is all about the decidedly not human gun.

It is time to accept the fact that everyone who talks about gun violence after a tragedy is wrong. Stricter gun laws are not going to bring back the twelve people who died on Friday, or the thousands who have died in the years previous due to gun violence. Screaming about people politicizing a tragedy means you are also politicizing the same tragedy. Everyone is wrong, we need new ideas.

The kids who survived the 2018 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School are showing the pro gun control work how to make change. These kids are not letting the issue go, like so many politicians before them. They are tireless advocates, powerful spokespersons, and the generation that will soon be running our country. Watch the Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school kids.

On the other side we need to look for the truly responsible gun owner, not the ones who blindly follow what ever the NRA is trying to sell. Listen to an avid hunter make their case for gun rights, it usually does not include the right for someone to have a pistol that holds over 20 bullets per clip. Watch for the thoughtful gun owner.

In the end we do not listen to the groups we should. We would rather let the same people yell the same things over and over again and just hope no one we love gets gunned down in a senseless massacre. That is why nothing ever changes. Now the families of Laquita C. Brown, Tara Welch Gallagher, Alexander Mikhail Gusev', Mary Louise Gayle, Katherine A. Nixon, Richard H. Nettleton, Christopher Kelly Rapp, Ryan Keith Cox, Joshua A. Hardy, Michelle "Missy" Langer, Robert "Bobby" Williams, and Herbert "Bert" Snelling need to mourn and bury their loved ones. Those twelve people were killed by a madman with a gun. All twelve died because of a gunshot.

They are gone.

The gun is ok.

Long live the gun.

RD

RD Kulik is the Head Editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. 

SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.