I don’t tend to go into politics on this blog. Well I have done but not in a serious way. This time it’s different.
A few days ago saw the senseless murder of two journalists from WDBJ7 in Roanoke Virginia live on air. They were just doing their job. The worst part, apart from it happening during a live report that their colleagues had to then report the death of their friend. It must have been awful for everyone involved.
My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy. From the friends and family of the people who were murderd in cold blood to the family of the murderer ( I am not going to use the phase “shooter” that I’m sure some members of the press have used in reporting the story ).
The problem seems to lie with what seems to be a love affair with the gun that Americans have. All countries have issues with guns but it does seem that America has taken it to a different level. Most countries learn from these senseless acts. America seems not to. A lot of it is down to a document written over 200 years ago when people thought that the country didn’t need to have a standing army. The country did move on bur it seems that the people haven’t. They don’t need the minutemen that they did in the late 18th century. They don’t need to protect their borders from the invading hordes of the British Army.
What I would, do like to know is how big a massacre would it need for the “Gun lobby” to realise how stupid their arguments are! They blame everyone instead of what the problem is. Not only that it seems their solution, that they scream at anyone nearby, is “MORE GUNS ” not what everyone else wants. That being control:
- Stop selling guns to anyone without checks.
- Give people a waiting period before they can have their weapon.
- Do more in depth checking to make sure that something like this never happens again
We all know that this won’t happen as the NRA has soo much sway in government due to how much it costs them to keep their paymasters happy. Whoever they are 😉
The NRA has responded to the murders of the journalists in a way that I don’t find surprising. They are trying to blame “anti-gun politicians” and “anti-gun activists” who want to tighten gun ownership.
The murders have started a twitter hashtag, #dearAmerica, a tag that the rest of the world asking America to please stop killing each other. The stats about gun use in America is scary. This year there has been, on average, just over, one mass shooting a day [ this is 4 or more people shot at one time. Not necessarily killed, just shot! ]
I live in the UK and have had training and have used firearms in the past. This is something that I can’t do anymore because of UK gun laws that basically bans anything that goes bang that isn’t a shotgun! We were trained in gun safety as well as what to do if the gun doesn’t go bang
To finish, this is my #dearAmerica that seems to be the theme of the hashtag:
“Please stop killing each other“
