If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Neil Heslin, whose 6-year-old son was among the 20 children gunned down by Adam Lanza in a Connecticut elementary school classroom last month, went to...
No matter what kind of firearms training he's supposedly had, a retired salesman isn't an honest-to-God active police officer and he damn sure is no match for a kid or man armed with an assault rifle and a death wish.
I don't know if I'd be the same person today without that experience. I would probably have felt a lot more isolated, I wouldn't have the social skills that I've developed, and I definitely wouldn't be so certain about what I want to do with my life.
I'll be the girl on the sidelines, reading the news about the gun control policies you are trying to push through, and then bowing my head in prayer for twice that amount of time for those who won't be around to see them take effect.
Since so much has been written recently about mental illness and access to guns, it's not a stretch to flip this argument around to include unrestrained force by a governmental body against someone who is dealing with depression.
Violence and anger are the products of fear, and we won't convince people to stop stockpiling deadly weapons until they understand that they already have power, because their voices are being heard and their fellow citizens and elected officials are not against them.
A week after Sandy Hook Elementary School was changed forever, so was I.
Though W.C. Fields once joked, "They say gasoline and alcohol don't mix... actually, they do, they just don't taste good," the combination of gun powder and testosterone is no joking matter.
Their grief is too profound and too public. Their words have to be taken seriously -- allowed to mix with the politics and the self-interest and the fear, those generic trivializers of the national conversation.
The present debate on what to do about gun violence as a result of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre reminds me of an observation by Winston Churchill: "The American people will find a solution to every problem after they've tried everything else."
As people connect with one another after Newtown, communicate concerns and develop solutions in ways that balance prevention and response, we are strengthening the bond that will help us keep our children safe.
Women are more likely than men to support stronger gun laws, even before any specific gun laws are described.
If you considered law enforcement to be a dangerous occupation, it turns out that it is not nearly as perilous as being a young child. Almost twice as many preschool-age children die from gun violence than police officers killed in the line of duty.
One month later, the tragedy at Sandy Hook has caused us to reflect on what kind of society we have become. Increasingly it feels like we have become a land of strangers and estrangement that has lost our relational glue.
It's difficult to death with anybody, but what do you say to say to kids about death -- especially when its their own?
This is one of the few recommendations that has a realistic chance of improving the safety of our children -- and it has little if anything to do with having a gun toting security guard on board when a rampage killer enters the classroom.
Most Popular
