Soapbox

In the Land of the Free You’ve Got to be Brave

   I refuse to be That Person.

    I refuse to be the guy who is always on Red Alert, who spends my entire life watching my back, who cannot pass a simple day at the beach without seeing a terrorist behind every tree and regarding every cloud in the sky as a possible tornado.
    I refuse to be the person who always carries a gun.
    I refuse to take along a loaded weapon and a kevlar vest on a trip to the grocery store  just in case someone who calls himself the Jolly Green Giant-Killer decides to shoot up the produce section because he hates vegetarians. I will not live on mental lock-down, constantly on alert for riots in the street.

   If only some sensible person had thought to bring a weapon that night….

   I refuse to be the 'sensible' kind who prepares for a fun night out with friends by saying "Hang on- I"d better grab my Glock, with armor-piercing rounds, just in case someone decides to  shoot up the midnight movie tonight! It has never happened before… but it might!"
   It might. And last week, it did. And a tree once fell on a girl in my hometown who was simply walking across campus, and it killed her! But I refuse to arm myself with a chain saw and walk only in parking lots from now on just in case. I refuse to turn my own heart into an armed camp, locking out joy, and trust.

    If only someone else had brought a weapon, so much tragedy could have been avoided.

    Cry cry, the beloved, foolish, country!  So many of you are too trusting, will not bend your knee and tithe to the Second Amendment, and look where it has brought you!
    You walk down the street just talking with friends and enjoying yourself, completely unprepared for mass carnage! You go to art galleries, to clubs and take the kids to the zoo without a loaded gun, when at any moment an anti-tiger zealot could start shooting!
    With such a negligent attitude, it's no wonder a dozen people are dead. It is really your duty as a citizen to buy and carry a weapon at all times. The only way to stop the killing is to be prepared to kill on a moment's notice.
     It takes a madman to  stop a madman.

     I refuse to join the madness.

    When are you going to recognize that it is the American way to avoid paying taxes on money that you got by raiding your neighbor's pension fund, but it is quite unpatriotic not to carry a gun to church, to school, to your local bar!
     Ah yes. Because when people– people who are twisted enough to stockpile ammunition for weeks and booby trap their own apartment before heading off to gun down a theater full of innocents… if those people knew that someone in that theater might also have a gun… in their lap, ready to fire… well, that would keep them from shooting, right? Surely  the sensible, rational brains which potential mass murders have would stay their own hands if they realized the good citizens sitting through a screening of Bambi would be packing heat!
    Yes, just as the extremely low murder rate in this country proves what a fantastic deterrent the death penalty is, too! Keep up the good work, citizen!

     And the answer can't possibly be to try harder to keep guns away from violence-prone mentally ill people, because Freeeedom!!
     And God knows, we cannot restrict the freedoms of our citizens!
     Well, except restricting birth control, I mean, sure. And voting… and access to marijuana-  oh, we can't have people getting their hands on that! That shit is damaging to society!
     And food stamps- can't be giving them out without drug tests. And we ought to restrict people who are gathering in public places like sidewalks and parks and saying things that we don't like.  Cause it's not like the right to peaceable assembly is in the Constitution or anything.
     But if even one person might be deprived of their right to unlimited guns by  banning assault weapons and massive purchases of ammunition… well, that's too high a price to pay. It's anti-democracy. It makes the American eagle cry, just thinking about it.
     There are no gray areas among the NRA crowd, either. The only possible choices before us are unrestricted access to any weaponry you want- OR taking away all guns forever. Which is why the proper response to any proposal at all, even trigger locks or safe storage laws will be "You stupid cowardly fairy liberals are trying to take away all our guns!"
    In America, the only sane response to all this gun violence is more guns. You owe it to your family, your community, and the guy in the produce section to carry a gun at all times. Just in case. Because horrible, terrible things  could happen! And you have to be prepared!

     Well I refuse to be that person. I refuse to face each day worried that a lunatic is going to leap out from behind a mannequin at Macy's at any second and gun me down. I lock my doors and don't walk alone at night, but I will not approach a simple trip to the library as if I may have to storm the beach at Normandy. I won't live llike that.

     Yes- I suppose something awful might happen. But that… that's not living.