In the wake of the recent massacre of elementary school students and staff in Connecticut, I find myself frustrated with one message that has gone viral in many forms:
Ummm, usually I can stand on the sideline and let Christians be Christians, but this is where I draw the line.
We need practical solutions to protect kids, as well as general citizens, from maniacs legally obtaining weapons and using them to injure and kill innocent people. We do NOT need a bunch of people wishing to some magical being for a solution. If you want God to be in your child's school, then feel free to enter your children into a private, Christian institution. There they can spend more time on God and less time on Math.
I don't want gun legislation to be a knee-jerk reaction to what has happened in the past week. I want gun legislation to be a logical step regarding years worth of data determining that our policies on guns are killing us.
The over-used 'Right to Bear Arms' argument is old. The Constitution had slavery written into it. Most states' voting laws only allowed for white men who owned significant property to vote (the Constitution left voting rights up to states originally). We've Amended (and sometimes un-amended) the Constitution several times since it was written, including Amendment #2. It's a living document, and most of it is out-dated.
You should only have the right to protect yourself if you are going to do so with a weapon that is not automatic or semi-automatic and if you are mentally stable. There is no need for concealed weapons; if you are just protecting yourself, then there's no harm in visually notifying everyone in your surroundings that you're prepared to. You only need single- and double-shot weapons for hunting. Automatic weapons should be reserved for military. If the military were to ever turn on its citizens, which Amendment #2 was protecting us from, we would have bigger issues to deal with than people running down our streets firing guns at us. Much bigger issues...
All I'm trying to say is that religion shouldn't be part of the current discussion. You know my feelings on religion, and I think they're reasonably fair. However, this should be a time to debate gun control and mental health funding. It should absolutely not be a time for wasting time on religion in schools.
Pray in one hand, shit in the other, and tell me which one fills first,
~RoB
Ummm, usually I can stand on the sideline and let Christians be Christians, but this is where I draw the line.
We need practical solutions to protect kids, as well as general citizens, from maniacs legally obtaining weapons and using them to injure and kill innocent people. We do NOT need a bunch of people wishing to some magical being for a solution. If you want God to be in your child's school, then feel free to enter your children into a private, Christian institution. There they can spend more time on God and less time on Math.
I don't want gun legislation to be a knee-jerk reaction to what has happened in the past week. I want gun legislation to be a logical step regarding years worth of data determining that our policies on guns are killing us.
The over-used 'Right to Bear Arms' argument is old. The Constitution had slavery written into it. Most states' voting laws only allowed for white men who owned significant property to vote (the Constitution left voting rights up to states originally). We've Amended (and sometimes un-amended) the Constitution several times since it was written, including Amendment #2. It's a living document, and most of it is out-dated.
You should only have the right to protect yourself if you are going to do so with a weapon that is not automatic or semi-automatic and if you are mentally stable. There is no need for concealed weapons; if you are just protecting yourself, then there's no harm in visually notifying everyone in your surroundings that you're prepared to. You only need single- and double-shot weapons for hunting. Automatic weapons should be reserved for military. If the military were to ever turn on its citizens, which Amendment #2 was protecting us from, we would have bigger issues to deal with than people running down our streets firing guns at us. Much bigger issues...
All I'm trying to say is that religion shouldn't be part of the current discussion. You know my feelings on religion, and I think they're reasonably fair. However, this should be a time to debate gun control and mental health funding. It should absolutely not be a time for wasting time on religion in schools.
Pray in one hand, shit in the other, and tell me which one fills first,
~RoB
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