I don't get it. I just don't get it and probably never will.
Twenty little kids get gunned down in an elementary school and the rifle lovers in America state it was the shooter, not the gun that was to blame.
People watching a movie in a theatre get spray painted with bullets. About seven or eight die, dozens are wounded. It's the guy, not the gun.
Last week though, it was the gun, not a guy, not the little nine-year-old girl.
The gun huggers and kissers are now saying that it's really never too early to teach your kid how to respect their firearms. Learn how to use them responsibly and well, you know the old dance routine, they've used it for over a century now.
The nine-year-old was wielding an Uzi, a rapid-fire automatic rifle that probably was as heavy as she was. She couldn't control it after the instructor set it for automatic firing.
The gun killed him. She killed him because the gun was in her hands. I'm not sure what the National Rifle Association and their gun owner-controlled justice system is using as an excuse this time.
I know one gun lobbyist who appeared on an American television show, proclaimed that five and six-year-olds should be taught how to use weapons responsibly. He said it with a straight face, too. He said by training them early, it removed the curiosity factor in them, so the younger the better in his technicoloured dream world. He suggested that their mothers get involved. There were no statements made about perhaps removing guns, just that they had to be sure they were not always loaded and were stored safely, I guess that meant after the kids got familiar with them.
I didn't get this doofuses' name but I'm willing to bet that if the interviewer had placed his tongue firmly in cheek and suggested that toddlers should get an introductory lesson in firearm safety, he would have agreed. His argument was that absurd. Yet here he was on a national television program, being listened to as if he were making a useful argument. It was almost surreal.
To this guy, it perhaps meant that toddlers could not only walk, but also lock and load in their new AK-47 diapers.
"Learn to walk, shoot and poop with our new Gunslinger Cruiser Diapers," the commercial might say.
I can see the NRA getting right on board with the concept. They'd probably start demanding that every day-care centre in the United States be fully equipped with live ammunition and target ranges, and they'd be willing to finance it. Drop the crayons you lily livered brat and pick up that Glock and get serious. Learn to respect the gun, it will save your life or allow you to take one whatever seems to be necessary at the time.
Am I taking this too far?
Well, not as far as I first thought. Not after last week when that little nine-year-old discovered she couldn't handle recoil on a rapid-fire automatic weapon, and neither did her gun instructor. His realization came too late.
Where will the U.S. draw the line on gun ownership and use?
I certainly don't know, and I'm not so sure they're so sure about this issue either, at least not now. Maybe a few more mass killings in schools will bring some respected leadership into play. I'm afraid that for the time being, the shooters are in charge.
