On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, I sat outside and watched my children playing in the front yard. I heard their laughter echo as I watched the trees sway in the occasional breeze. I thought about how innocent, loving and caring they are despite living in a world filled with so much hate.
I don’t like to write about current events, especially when the event is something like because it seems bait clicky. It honestly makes me feel dirty like I’m using the pain that other people are in right now for my own gain. But I can’t stay silent anymore, not after this and maybe never again.
I can’t imagine nor do I even want to, the pain and horror of receiving a text message from your son saying he is going to die. To not be able to reach out and hold him, comfort him, protect him, is too much. There are just no words.
I can’t believe this is the world we live in, and I don’t want to get political, I don’t want to take people’s rights away. But I refuse to live in a world where it’s okay to walk into a school and kill innocent kindergarteners. I refuse to live in a world where it’s okay to kill people in a church. I refuse to live in a world where it’s okay to kill people in a nightclub. We should be angry. We should be outraged. We should do something besides flooding social media with hashtags and supportive memes.
I don’t want to hear; it was just another shooting.
When will we stop? When will we stop debating and say enough is enough, we don’t want any more mass shootings, we need to meet in the middle? Gun advocates want to keep their guns, let them. I see nothing wrong with owning a handgun if you so choose. I don’t like guns, but I’m reasonable enough to understand that I shouldn’t impose my beliefs on the world. An AR-15 fires 800 rounds a minute. 800 rounds, people. Why does a hunter need a weapon that fires 800 rounds a minute? What could you possibly hunt with a weapon like that besides people? Instead of trying to ban all weapons, why don’t we start with the ones that are going to do the most damage in a crowd of people? Most handguns only hold 12 rounds of ammunition. Wouldn’t it makes sense to ban the sale of weapons that would kill the most people without having to change the clip?
Can’t you hear them? The souls of all the men, women, and children whose lives have been cut so tremendously short by all this violence are screaming out to us begging for it to stop. The list of names keeps growing, and we sit idly by making the same arguments, and it becomes just another shooting to add to the ever growing list. It doesn’t have to be. WE can stand up and say enough is enough, today is the day that it all ends. Because if we don’t, one day, it will be you, it will be me. We will be the ones huddled together in a bathroom, praying, screaming on the inside as we struggle to stay as quiet as possible, so the bad man with a gun doesn’t hear us. Wondering what our families will do without us. Wondering, if it will hurt when we die.
I’m tired of living in fear. I’m tired of wondering every morning when I drop my children off at school, will today be the day? I don’t want to be that mom, wondering what her child’s last minutes were like. We shouldn’t live in a world where our children have drills to hide under desks because a bad man could come in with a gun. WE need to stand up; WE need to do something. People talk about making America great again, well let’s start here. Let’s start by loving one another and standing together. This doesn’t have to be just another shooting, but it can be the last.