The man asked me if I wanted to see the killing room. I declined. I was stuck in a chicken factory watching hundreds of live chickens hanging upside down on wire frames passing slowly before me as the conveyor system conveyed.
"First we spray 'em with salt water, " said the man in the protective food service cap. His name was Lyle. Said so on his badge.
I asked him why. "Salt water makes for better contact with the chickens."
"Huh?"
"Electric shock. So we can stun 'em senseless before we kill 'em."
"Ah."
Senseless. A pretty innocuous and vague word commonly used in conjunction with acts of gun violence.
There's the Cincinnati cop indicted for the shooting death of an unarmed black man in his car. The Hamilton County prosecutor called the killing "senseless."
In Minneapolis a 16-year-old boy was shot to death in broad daylight. The Star Tribune called it, "senseless."
On the Aurora Movie Theater shooting, actress Anne Hathaway opined that it was an "Unfathomably senseless act."
Film director Christopher Nolan referred to the same massacre as, "A senseless act..."
Of the Lafayette movie shooting, Universal Studios put out this statement, "All of us at Universal Pictures send our heartfelt sympathies to the victims of this senseless tragedy and their families in Louisiana."
Tamir Rice: A 12-year-old boy. Senseless.
Sandy Hook: 20 children. 6 adults. Senseless.
Texas toddler kills self with grandfather's gun: Senseless.
Rebecca Eldemire, my 21-year-old niece: Senseless.
Senseless. When are gun deaths ever sensible? Anybody? Any hands up?
Gun deaths do not need a modifier. Except maybe "preventable."
As a country that claims to be religious - One nation under God, God bless America and all of that, we are more and more bowing before the Altar of the 2nd Amendment. We worship the 2nd Amendment with such fervor that it takes precedence over the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Especially the "life" part.
If the NRA had its way along with its political supporters, anybody who wants a gun would have a gun. No questions. No training. No taking of responsibility for actions resulting from the use of that gun. And if possible, let's blame the victim.
There's the Baltimore guy who was just cleaning his shotgun when it went off. Killed his 23-year-old son. And legally he wasn't even supposed to have a gun. "Oops." And double "Oops."
Or the Dallas guy who was just cleaning his gun, maybe whistling a happy tune, when he shot his own 3-month-old boy. "So-rrr---yyy."
Or the Georgia man who gave his pistol to his 12-year-old son. Daddy thought he'd unloaded it. Son played with gun. Pointed "unloaded" gun at 11-year-old sister. Son pulled trigger. Bullet left gun. Bullet entered sister's body. "My bad."
None of these killings were "senseless." All were preventable.
Nationwide, Nearly 1.7 million kids under 18 live in with loaded, unlocked guns in their homes. This means they're 16 times more likely to be killed in unintentional shootings.
This much carelessness and our cultural addiction to guns results in so many killings--or let's be more precise and call them murders -- of our children, sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers, husbands, cousins, lovers, friends and total strangers that we no longer know how to use the right language for this plague. This has to change. This has to stop.
There are about 270 million guns across our great nation in only 32.4 percent of American households. This means, if you're betting on gun sense, the odds are not good.
This reality is what's truly senseless.
We owe it to our children, sisters, mothers, fathers, brothers, husbands, cousins, lovers, friends and total strangers to remove politicians who are in the NRA's pocket and elect public servants who will serve the greater good by passing common sense gun legislation. Only then will we never again have to hear the word "senseless" used with the word "gun."