Children

My house was filled with the sound, the happy sound, of children yesterday.  I volunteered to take some photos that I suppose will end up as gifts to relatives near and far, so I made my living room into a studio, and opened my house (and my heart) for the little rats.  I mean the wonderful, charming little ones....

And for this I was glad.

I am not sure why the news of the most recent school shooting affected me as it did, but not only was I incredibly saddened by the news but I found myself very angry.  I know that part of that is because I feel the earth tilt at the sadness of 20 six and seven year olds not being able to go to school anymore, or the 20 families that will face a bleak, sad, holiday.  I was saddened imagining the impact that this will have on the 700 other students in that school, a school that will no longer feel safe, now or probably ever.  I felt sad for the 500 families that will have to have very difficult, challenging, and tear-filled conversations about lost friends and lost innocence.  How does a community, however defined, whether a family, a classroom, a school, or even a town of 27,000 or even the nation, recover?

I am mad and sad because we can actually make a list and place this tragedy on a scale and compare it to other school shootings--it was worse than Columbine but not as bad as Virginia Tech is what I heard one commentator say.  That we can place this mindless, fathomless tragedy on a list and compare it, by body count, to other such tragedies does not exactly paint a bright picture of today's society.  Is our new standard, the bar that we try and reach, simply that it could have been worse?

I have thought about it a lot and I am pretty certain that I am not a fan nor a proponent of gun control.  Not because of the 2nd Amendment.  That is a false, flawed argument, but that is another blog.  No, I think that I am against it simply because it would be like shutting the doors after all the inmates or farm animals or whatever have escaped.  We are the most heavily armed population in the world, with more guns than people.  It is a bit late to say that we will begin controlling guns now.

I am certainly not anti-guns.  I know that guns themselves aren't inherently evil or  bad--frankly, in most worlds, my cameras and this computer can wreck more havoc than one person's guns.  As a collector of most everything (or so I have been told) I admire the craftsmanship  and precision of guns, and I wonder about the history that they carry with them.

But I do think, like President Obama, that we have to have a serious conversation about guns in our society.  I don't understand why it takes more paperwork and identification for me to buy Sudafed than it does for me to buy most guns.  I don't understand why I can buy 10,000 rounds of ammunition on the internet, but I can't buy a box of wine the same way.  I don't understand why the doors to gun shops are easily accessible, but the doorway to affordable and accessible mental health care is open mostly or too  often to only those who can afford it and seldom to those who need it.

As I read the news of late, I also don't understand the deplorable lack of education about guns.  Several news articles have covered unintentional shootings.  A four year old shot his two year old brother with a gun he took from his parent's bedroom...  A grandfather shot his granddaughter who was coming home later one evening...  And I am sure I can find others--all told, more than 15,000 people were killed by guns in the United States last year.

And I do believe that it doesn't have to be that way.  I know someone who grew up with guns, a lot of them, like gun store quantity.  She not only survived this, but she didn't even turn out to be  a gun-crazed loner who wears black.  But I suspect that in that household, respect for guns was taught from an early age.  If the kids had not respected the guns or the rules surrounding them, I bet it would have been rather pointedly pointed out to them.  They didn't play with guns.  They knew gun safety.  They knew the danger and the privilege of having or using a gun.  It was and is far safer  that house with 100 guns than the house with one gun in a bed stand where no one knows what to do with it.  We need conversations about education.

I read with interest that as a nation, we are buying more guns than ever, especially since the election.  People fear that the government is going to stop gun sales.  I sincerely doubt that this is going to happen.  But we need to have some conversations, honest and unlimited ones with everything on the table about some aspects of gun sales.  Should the assault weapon ban be reimposed?  Do most people need an AR-15 or a Bushmaster?   Do we need limits on magazine size?  Isn't 11 enough or do we need 17 or 100?  Do we need better and more inclusive background checks on who buys guns?  Should I be able to just buy a gun at a gun show on my way home from prison or the local mental health care facility if the seller isn't licensed?  Do we need...well, you get the idea.  We need some political will to at least discuss some of these issues, though admittedly political will seems to be in short supply.  Right now, however, no one is even willing to have to the conversations, and that is sad.

I am going through all the photos I took yesterday, and I can remember all the inane, silly conversations, the absolutely wonderful heartening and hopeful conversations that I was able to have with these fantastic kids.  And I am glad.    But I want more of them, and want everyone to have the chance to have them.  For sure, 20 families aren't having them this holiday season.   I think to make sure we can have more of thes good conversations,  we probably need to have some serious, more difficult conversations about guns.