We made that choice when we accepted the terrorism of the NRA and decided it was ok for the kindergarteners at Sandy Hook to die for our “freedom”.
by Ashley Palmer,
I’m absolutely sickened by the violence in Orlando and the senseless loss of life. My heart breaks for the families of these victims, and for all of us in this broken nation.
Thursday night an entire neighborhood in Landen, a suburb of Cincinnati was on lockdown hiding out in their homes and jobs from an active shooter, and then on Friday people were afraid in the Dallas airport where shots were fired, Saturday we learned about singer Christina Grimmie being shot to death while greeting fans and now this, 49 young people out dancing and having fun and then gone.
[pull_quote_right]The thoughts and prayers being offered by politicians are not cutting it.[/pull_quote_right]THIS is terrorism. This daily barrage of fear, constantly being at risk and in danger as you go about your daily life. The thoughts and prayers being offered by politicians are not cutting it, while comforting this is not solving the problem. Getting to the bottom of it doesn’t seem to help either, there are a lot of reasons people have shot up schools and malls and movie theaters and churches and nightclubs. While we should certainly do more to address mental health and domestic violence and hate crimes and terrorism, guns are the one thing all of these murders have in common.
It seems like nothing is going to change, the gun violence epidemic appears to be here to stay. We made that choice when we accepted the terrorism of the NRA and decided it was ok for the kindergarteners at Sandy Hook to die for our “freedom”. I’ve raged and ranted and made calls and written letters and voted and because of my passion for this issue I have lost friends and damaged family relationships; I’ve even been threatened with violence myself. I’m tired and losing hope but I just can’t stop, we can’t go numb and allow this to continue as the status quo.
[pull_quote_left]I’ve raged and ranted and made calls and written letters and voted and because of my passion for this issue I have lost friends and damaged family relationships; I’ve even been threatened with violence myself. I’m tired and losing hope but I just can’t stop, we can’t go numb and allow this to continue as the status quo.[/pull_quote_left]I do not for one moment suggest taking all guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, no one does. All I ask is for some common sense regulation in the form of expanded and enforced background checks and a ban on assault weapons. SO many of our gun tragedies have been committed with legal weapons and it only takes ONE of them, in the wrong hands, to result in a horrifying tragedy. The majority of the American people support this, even most gun owners, but we have to make our voices heard and push our representatives to be brave and stand up. I recognize and respect that guns are very important to a segment of our population, whether they represent a hobby, tradition, security or purely a right. However, as a citizen, if something I cared about caused so many families to be ripped apart I would reexamine my attachment to it and make a sacrifice for the greater good of our society.
http://www.contactingthecongress.org
In the meantime, we must love one another and try to treat our friends and families the best we can, since tomorrow is never promised to any of us.
Ashley Palmer graduated in 1996 from Loveland High School and currently lives in Orange County, Ca.
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As a famous leader once said:
“Cause the registration of all firearms on some pretext, with the view of confiscating them and leaving the population defenseless.”
– Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (Ulyanov)
If the “gun control” Rat Pack were truly concerned with America’s cultural conditions, social cohesion, and national security, they would be arguing for securing America’s borders, deporting all illegal aliens, and repealing the 1965 Immigration & Nationality Act (Hart-Celler Act). In contrast, their sole focus is on making firearm ownership as onerous as possible for law-abiding Americans.
Moreover, why don’t these disingenuous demagogues ever have “sit-ins” or advocate for border control, immigration control, gang control, terrorist control, pharmaceutical control, or mental-health control? Why are inanimate objects, in the form of firearms, singled out at the expense of everything else that, if addressed, would have a greater aggregate affect on America’s societal well-being than what will ultimately lead to centralizing firearms in the hands of an increasingly Bolshevized government, its minions, criminals, and terrorists?
The lies-of-omission, hyper-focus on firearms, and avoidance of addressing America’s deteriorating cultural conditions should underscore their true intentions.
Over the past 100 years, we’ve seen the imbalance of power that is created when “gun control” was undemocratically IMPOSED in other nations, and how their citizenry have been put at a severe self-defense disadvantage. Crime and violence rates, in addition to terrorist attacks, all increased due to the fact that the criminals knew that their victims were disarmed, defenseless, and easy prey.
As we witnessed, their governments increasingly took advantage and undemocratically IMPOSED ever-more restrictive laws that only encumbered the law-abiding. The citizens’ loss was the gain of the increasingly detached and dictatorial governments, the criminals, and the terrorists. In most instances, what was created was a totalitarian, authoritarian “police state.”
Who is behind the “gun control” agenda, and which “Americans” are the “pied-pipers” blowing their horns for a “police state?”
We do need tighter legislation on gun control (i.e. background checks). However, taking away guns is not the answer. Just yesterday a women official in the UK was stabbed repeatably. A murderer, mentally ill or terrorist wanting to kill will use any tool to achieve their goal. Look up how many terrorist attacks have occurred in the world. The one thing that the Orlando attack, World Trade Center, San Bernardino and many others have in common is terrorists.
I believe this guy went through a complete FBI background check as required by his employer who is a contractor to DHS. The problem has a lot to do with the government not enforcing the laws already on the books and tying the FBI’s hands when it investigates a muslim. I have not heard one person say what new law would have prevented this massacre and if that new law would not have prevented this then why are we even discussing it?
I am happy to see comments made by people that understand reality. The only common denominator is the human beings ionvolved. Outlawing guns would create a larger smuggling industry and make the entire country a “gun free zone”.
Giving your cause a bad name*
Very well said. I can’t understand why anyone opposes greater regulation on assault rifles. And all you gun nuts who get patriotic and romantic about the vague notion of gun ownership as a birthright are doing nothing but enabling the sick people who commit the acts of terror. You’re a responsible gun owner? Stand up for yourselves. The mentally ill people are giving your cause a bad Amand and you should be the first to want to weed them out with tighter legislation. I just don’t understand. Bravo Ashley.
It’s interesting that if I support gun rights you label me as a gun nut and the author labels the NRA as a terrorist organization.
Remember, Spoons make people fat, people don’t make themselves fat.
I remember 9/11/01, remember the terrorist on those planes with high powered rifles taking over the planes and flying them into buildings. I remember the planes into the buildings, but they used box cutters not guns. Terrorism only objective is to scare people, remove guns they use cars, bombs, knives, sharpened sticks, box cutters…etc. It’s not the gun, it’s the ideology of killing or hurting people. Anti-gun advocates are the first to say it’s not all (insert minority group or religious group) but we can’t blame everyone in that group. When it comes to guns they are the first to say, blame every person that legally owns a firearm.
Guns are not the only thing the mass killings have in common, they have all taken place in “GUN FREE” locations. You have to think that the most important fact here is why only gun free ares? It has to be the potential shooter knows he/she stands a better chance of being stopped before maximum damage is done.
Ms. Palmer,
I too am sickened by the massacre in Orlando. You are correct when you say that these terrorist acts all have one thing in common however, it is not guns. The one thing all terrorist acts have in common is they are committed by a deranged individual or a group of deranged individuals. The choice of weapon could be anything including box cutters, fertilizer or many other materials we use every day. Yes, guns can also be their choice of weapon but it is being reported that the animal that shot up the bar in Orlando passed no less than an FBI background check required to be employed by a DHS subcontractor. I fail to see how any additional laws pertaining to the ownership of guns would have prevented this massacre. I’m sorry that you view the NRA in such a negative way.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
Benjamin Franklin; stairwell plaque in the Statue of Liberty
California gun bans really kept the San Bernardino shooters from being armed. It so much easier for left-wingers to whine about the NRA and our freedoms than to face reality and understand that people willing to commit first degree murder are going to be armed no matter what. All the silly gun bans do is disarm good Americans. BTW the killer in Florida passed several background checks-hardly the NRA’s fault
San Bernardino was unproven. Confliciting eyewitness accounts say shooter was three large men in masks, not a slight man and woman.