Guns are used to kill…
Am I waking, am I sleeping? As the first faint dawn comes creeping
Thro’ the pane, I am aware Of an unseen presence hovering,
Round, above, in the dusky air:
A downy bird, with an odorous wing,
That fans my forehead, and sheds perfume,
As sweet as love, as soft as death,
Drowsy-slow through the summer-gloom.
My heart in some dreamrapture saith,
It is she. Half in a swoon, I spread my arms in slow delight.—
O prolong, prolong the night, For the nights are short in June!
— “Borderland” by Amy Levy
Here and there guns have been a part of my life. I held my first firearm when I was about 14. Our “gang” had four or five boys with bikes that took us away from “society.” We foraged, lit a campfire and ate our catch.
The first time I was handed a rifle there was a canvasback duck 50 feet away. I closed my left eye, held my breath, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. The duck rolled over on its side in the water. What did I feel? Glee? Pride? A sense of accomplishment? Nothing! An emptiness. A void. The guys slapped me on the back, “Good shot, Ed!”
In the Air Force I earned a spot as a marksman and was a provost marshal at a radar base in Pennsylvania. I was armed while carrying classified information from place to place. What I am saying is I was coached and trained to use a weapon. This cannot be said about the murderers in Columbine, Sandy Hook, Parkland and Uvalde. You have read and seen news reports about these disconcerting tragedies.
Uvalde, Texas, is a small town of about 16,000 inhabitants on the southern edge of the Texas Hill Country and near the Frio River. Authorities there gave contradictory details about the day Salvador Ramos, an 18-year-old, shot his grandmother in the face and killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. There was a time lag between when police were notified and when they reacted. As I write this the grandmother has survived, town leaders are being helped by the for a U.S. Customs and Border Protection tactical team and more specifics become clear. The school door to the outside had been unlocked where Ramos entered and he locked the classroom door after he got in.
There have been at least 24 acts of gun violence at
K-12 schools so far this year!
Yet Congress has done nothing because the GOP has sidelined efforts to protect its citizens since 2013 when they cut off funding for gun research efforts at the Centers for Disease Control. Texas Senator
Ted Cruz asserted the solution to mass murder at schools was more armed police or teachers and that gun control was not the answer. When asked by a British reporter two days after Uvalde asked Cruz about gun violence in the U.S., Cruz stormed off the stage.
Cruz was scheduled to appear at the National Rifle Association’s annual convention in Houston that began last Friday, as were Donnyt and other Gopers. They were expected to “reflect on” Uvalde while trying to deflect blame.
The only chance for real reduction of gun deaths in America is to reduce GOP members of local, state and national governments. They are beholden to the NRA and will not pass laws and restrictions needed to reduce this scourge. “A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed,” in the Second Amendment of the Constitution must be refined from its 18th century origin.
There have been at least 24 acts of gun violence at K-12 schools so far this year! Yet Congress has done nothing because the GOP has sidelined efforts to protect its citizens since 2013 when they cut off funding for gun research efforts at the Centers for Disease Control.