We live in troubling times, indeed. A Congresswoman who was shot in the head and somehow survived, addressed Congress and pleaded for new gun restrictions. Too many children are dying, she said. And then, the day after she made these remarks, we get another example of exactly what Gabby Giffords was speaking of.
The girl on the left in the video above, Hadiya Pendleton, was a sophomore in high school until a couple of days ago. She was standing under a bus shelter, keeping out of the rain with a group of her friends, when some idiot jumped a fence, fired some shots, and ran away. And now the world knows her name, and not in a good way, either.
The NRA would have us believe that a group of high school children, having just taken their final exams, could have prevented this shooting if they were carrying weapons. They’re hoping the ludicrous nature of this argument takes us away from the fact that if this fence-jumping idiot had not had a gun in his possession, nobody would be dead. Is this what they really believe? And what makes anyone believe a group of teenagers with guns is a good idea to begin with? Trust me, it isn’t.
This all happened in the neighborhood that President Obama lives in. You could walk from the crime scene to his house in less time than it takes to read this post. And yet, somehow, any talk of limiting or restricting the flow of guns onto the streets of Chicago is greeted with cries of “tyranny.” I guess that children dying, at an ever-increasing rate, is just fine with these people, so long as it’s not happening where they live.
It’s a terrible commentary on where we are as a society that this continues to happen. I hope we can somehow find our way to a rational place, before too much more killing takes place. This saps our nation’s strength more effectively than any external enemy ever could. All who love this country must heed Congresswoman Giffords’ call to action. As she said, be bold, Congress. That’s what you’re there for.
Blue Batting Helmet 
Wonderful call to action!
Thanks for reading! All the best to you.
Blame the War on Drugs, and dysfunctional inner cities.
lwk
Who Needs An Assault Rifle?
http://free2beinamerica2.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/who-needs-an-assault-rifle/
Thanks for reading.
I don’t think it’s quite as easy as you suggest. The kid who jumped the fence and opened fire had to get his gun from somewhere, and whoever put that gun in his hands is just as culpable as the kid who pulled the trigger.
The war on drugs is a flat failure, and has drained this country dry in many ways. We tried to fight liquor in this country once, and now we’ll all gather around the Super Bowl to watch beer commercials instead. Let people destroy themselves, if that’s what they have a mind to do, but at least regulate its sale and then tax it at a heavy rate. We do that with alcohol and tobacco, why not with drugs, too? But I don’t know if there were any drug issues involved with this shooting or not.
As for inner cities, having taught in one for several years myself, I can tell you there are good people there and bad people there, the same as anywhere else. Kenwood–where the shooting took place–is more upscale than a lot of other places in Chicago. And Newtown Connecticut is probably a very nice, very affluent area. Aurora, Colorado is probably like that, too. To reduce the cause to where the shooting took place doesn’t feel right to me.
Thanks again for the comment.