Today as my heart flooded with emotion
to the point of tears,
Arianna aka "The Caboose" noticed.
She'd stayed home from school with a stomach bug,
and was just coming downstairs
when she noticed me at the laptop,
tears flowing.
I gathered my emotions together,
straightened my Self,
and told her to sit down for a minute,
I had something to tell her.
She could tell by my appearance
that something wasn't right,
and sat right down to listen.
Then, I told her about a mentally ill man
going into his kindergarten-teacher-Mom's school
and killing alot of little children
and other teachers and the principal there.
Her eyes welled up,
and then a look of fear came over her own face--
"Why would someone kill kids? Why?"
That is a question I do not have the answer.
This practice of loading up guns
then heading out to shoot-to-kill
innocent people without interruption
has gotten too familiar.
Wasn't it just days ago
that a similar thing happened at a
Clackamas shopping mall?
It's happening so often,
there isn't enough time to even
mourn the losses in each instance.
I'm thinking it's time I get a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
I have friends who have done this,
and while I abhor guns,
I don't want to ever be at the mercy of a lunatic
pointing a gun at my self or my child
with no way to protect them.
If even one teacher had a weapon today,
perhaps the shooter wouldn't have had time
to kill an entire classroom of children.
He may have shot one,
but not 27 others.
Or the crazy orange-haired nutjob shooter
in the Aurora theater--
if just one other person had a gun in that theater,
lives would've been saved.
Enough is enough.
Gun laws are for law-abiding citizens.
As one friend shared,
Criminals don't obey laws,
that's what makes them criminals.
My mother-heart is truly aching for the mothers and fathers
and families and friends whose babies were taken away from them today.
Something has to change.
I don't know the answer,
but I want to hear some good suggestions
for ways we can protect our selves and our little ones.
May God in heaven bless you all in Connecticut.
My dear woman, (((hugs))). Please don't buy that gun. Don't have it in your purse so someone can snatch it from you and shoot you instead of just robbing you. Don't have it in your house so a child might accidentally kill themselves. Don't be part of the madness, the horror. Let me tell you, if a guy is pointing a rifle at you, your brain is not going to have the time or sense to find your purse, pull out your gun, aim, and shoot to disarm and disable. Your brain is going to be a screaming wreck urging you to hide or run. And in the meanwhile, you have paid into the fund of violence and hopelessness that guns represent.
ReplyDeleteThe work needed to protect yourselves and your children is long, hard, sacrificial work. It involves much healing of many awful wounds. It may even require an overhaul of your entire culture one way or the other. The best I can suggest is that you go on being a kind and loving person. Smile at strangers. Offer to help someone in need. Give out love. Because you may never encounter someone like Adam Lanza in time to help him. But you may encounter his mother in a store, and just the small moment in which you open the door for her, or smile and say you like her earrings, may give her strength and encouragment to do the next thing in helping her son. Every little bit of love makes a huge difference.
JMHO. Blessings and hugs to you today.
Coming back later to apologise for my long comment. I always talk too much at times like this and regret it later. The last sentence was all I should have written. (((Hugs))) again, I hope you and your children are doing okay.
ReplyDeletePS, I hope too that Dean is well.
A beautiful tribute. The world mourns with those who are mourning. I hope they can feel of our love, our sympathy, our hopes for healing, and support.
ReplyDeletemy husband is a gun toter - carries just about everywhere. guns are not permitted on school property here in wv. or in hospitals.
ReplyDeleteat work in my hospital
i personally had a scary incident several weeks ago with a gun shot victim that ended up being a robber of a crack house. talk about a nightmare - we had security and law enforcement all over us that day, but nothing could have kept anyone from coming off the elevator right in front of me and starting to shoot at random.
here in our local county our school doors all have locks on them and you have to be buzzed in except for morning and evening kid comings and goings. that is a little peace of mind.
my discussion with my kids involved statistics. the odds of that happening anywhere is probably so small that you could win the lottery or be struck by lightening before being shot in a random shooting at some place like a school or mall. i worry more about students doing stuff like this than strangers.
more than once it has been mentioned that the media makes these killers famous and it just shows the next disturbed person that they can be infamous through eternity instead of being a nobody that committs suicide or just sulks away with these thoughts without acting on them.
me and my family, kids included are all able to use a firearm and we have them in various places in our home in case of an intruder - but i don't know that i could pull the trigger to stop somebody coming through my front door. i think i could protect my family at any cost - but it would be hard on my heart to harm another person.
may god wrap his loving arms around all of those affected by this tragedy!!!
and on a sidenote - those guns were the weapon of choice, but he stole them to committ this crime. current gun laws prevented him from being able to purchase a weapon. he could have just as easily made a bomb or found another way to hurt those people.
ReplyDeleteguns don't kill people - people kill people and they will find a way. i would imagine that beatings and shaking and car accidents have killed far more people than gun violence!!
These are very troubling times for sure and we in our family take guns very serious and have them for protection.
ReplyDeleteA story is just emerging out of Portland, Oregon about a man in the mall at the time of the shooting who had a concealed weapon and drew it. From what he said he had the guy in his sights but because he saw movement behind the shooter he did not take shot. When the gunmen became aware that someone had a gun and could potentially shoot him the next shot that was fired was the one that the gunman used to take his own life. It makes you wonder if that had not happened if more people would have been shot. Nonetheless, those crazed and mentally ill will find a way to do damage whether it be with a bomb, poison, knife or by some other method.
Dawn . . . thank you for such a thoughtful and thought provoking post . . . We all have much to think about as we try to protect our homes and loved ones in this day and age . . . so much tragedy all around. Amidst the bounty and great blessings . . . still the sorrow is so frequently present. WE all have to hold those precious Yahoo's close though . . . and treasure each moment of life!
ReplyDeleteKristin
Sad and scary. It's been impossible to get the whole thing off my mind. I couldn't even write about it until today.
ReplyDeleteI am beginning to get some perspective, but oh, it hurts to think about those families.
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I seriously can't remember a harder few days, except in March when we lost our little granddaughter. I walked into my classroom and realized what a sacred place it is.
ReplyDelete