Friday, February 16, 2018

Congress, You're Fired

Every politician in the US has failed us, again.

Neil Gaiman retweeted this Op-Ed and said, with depressing accuracy, "It makes it look as if this is the best government the gun lobby could buy."

A number of people on Twitter have taken to quoting congresspeople who tweeted their "thoughts and prayers" for this latest tragedy with the $ amount of donations that particular congressperson has received from the NRA listed atop their "condolences." Many were in the multiple hundreds of thousands, some were in the millions.

The current white house and current congress are full of people who don't give a shit that over a dozen families took their children to school on Wednesday and then never saw them again. They don't care that people whose job it was to improve the lives of young people were shot because they went to work on a normal weekday.

The horror of these events shouldn't just wash over us. It shouldn't. That it can and does is so messed up that it's difficult to conceive.

But it's hard to dwell on these things for too long when this was the 18th such event since January 1st. If one is confronted with that much horror every two to three days, how can one possibly let the true depravity sink in. To do so would be profoundly unhealthy. And yet...

The correct response is not to simply "move on." It is not to say, "what can we do?" Or to call it an "unpreventable tragedy."

This headline today made me want to vomit:


Raises questions about whether Florida school massacre was preventable??

OF COURSE IT WAS FUCKING PREVENTABLE! I DON'T CARE WHAT THE FBI KNEW OR DIDN'T KNOW.

-------->>>>>>  STOP SELLING PEOPLE AR-15s!  <<<<<<----------

JUST STOP.

No one needs an AR-15 outside of a combat situation. Even gun loving, former military, hunting aficionados admit this. 
*There was another one from a former SEAL that I can't find again, but you get the gist.* 


Stop selling AR-15s to anyone but the military. 

This tragedy, like every other school shooting with an assault weapon, was entirely preventable.

And don't tell me that making AR-15s illegal isn't going to stop criminals from using them. That argument is just dumb. By that same reasoning we shouldn't outlaw murder, theft, or anything at all, because criminals will just ignore the law. Yes, criminals may ignore the law, but if it makes things more difficult for people who want to commit a mass shooting how can it be a bad thing? Meanwhile, every other country that has banned assault weapons has seen an end to mass shootings. 

And don't tell me that not ALL mass shootings are committed with AR-15s and therefore we shouldn't ban them. Enough of them are committed with AR-15s that banning AR-15s would clearly make a difference. People choose this weapon because it can kill a large number of people quickly. And if you want to insist that other weapons can too.... you know what? Ban them too. Seriously. I'm tired of it. You really don't need anything that spends rounds that quickly in your home. 

Next up, don't tell me not to politicize a tragedy. The survivors of this latest massacre are already begging the government to implement gun control. 


The families of the fallen are asking for it too. Stop pretending that there is some acceptable mourning period that must be observed before we can start asking congress to do ITS ONLY JOB and make sensible laws to protect US citizens from senseless violence. Just stop.

And stop pretending that you care about other humans, or basic human decency, if you think there's *nothing* that could have been done. 

Call your representatives ASAP and tell them that it's time for reasonable gun control. Tell them it's time for them to do their jobs. Remind them that elections are coming up and you are prepared to vote against them in order to find someone who is actually willing to do the job they were elected for. Tell them that #enoughisenough. 
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