Gun violence is a fucking daily reality for those of us that live with it. I know that we joke about how “America loves its guns” and how we all have active shooter drills now. But that…shouldn’t be a laughing matter!? This isn’t funny??!! Just a few nights ago, I heard gunshots outside my apartment. And last month or so, I was staying in the lab late at night, and security had to lock down the building because there was an active shooter inside my department building which is normally locked by keycard access at night. I spent 4 hours hiding inside my office until security gave me the all clear to go home.
And the thing is, I still cannot imagine the terror these poor CHILDREN went through. I was so angry about Sandy Hook 10 years ago, and I’m fucking furious now. Because the thing is, there’s a certain sect of people (read: Republicans & the NRA) who are just stonewalling everything that we’re trying to do to pass sensible gun legislation.
I need to bring 500 different documents to prove my identity to the DMV so I can get a driver’s license…and that’s for a car, whose main function is to get me around places, but has the potential to harm people if handled irresponsibly. And for SOME GODAWFUL REASON we don’t seem to have the same standards for obtaining guns??? WHOSE MAIN FUNCTION IS TO LITERALLY KILL PEOPLE?
Someone explain this to me.
They genuinely, literally think the right to own any type of gun IS the definition of American freedom, the thing they think keeps the government from “controlling” them. They think banning even one type of gun is an erosion of this freedom, which they’ve been trained to seriously fear more than any conceivable amount of death, period. Every child in the country could be shot right now and Republicans would block absolutely any measure that implies even *one* less gun.
















