Gun.

I find myself torn these days.

I still feel the rawness of the Newtown mass shooting…as much as I could not having been directly impacted by it.  It (along with Aurora and the recent stabbing rampage in Houston) drives an inner dialogue – that these days seems better kept to myself.  No one really wants to talk about it.  At least that’s how it seems.  A lot of people want to posture about it.  But if you sat inside anyone’s head during private moments they have with themselves, no one could rationally feel that nothing needs to be done.

Now – what that rational approach might be is going to and does vary widely.  The NRA’s leadership would like us to believe that the only way to protect yourself from a guy with a gun (who is going to kill you with it even though it doesn’t want to) is yourself wielding armament equal to or greater than the power of the aggressor.  Stand fast and no one will fuck with you is pretty much the argument that the NRA has taken (as an organization). 

The other rational approach for some is to take them all away: guns don’t kill people but people that want to use them to kill people are rampant so – NO SOUP FOR YOU! 

In between are solutions that dilute the strengths of the extremes but in the end do very little to address the underlying simple acceptance with death and violence as a natural quality that can be battled or regulated but cannot be addressed.

Seems like neither end of the spectrum is really a rational approach to ending or at the very least curbing the violence that we as a society feel compelled to mete out in such doses as at make sure that no one ever forgets just how much we can fuck you up if we feel like it.

It’s a sad state.

So where am I?  I could frankly care little less anymore about how violent we want to be toward each other.  If rational leadership comes down in the middle of two equally irrational solutions the result is not a rational methodology to reduce violence or hate – it’s simply a stop-gap until we as a society figure out a way to circumvent the restrictions placed upon us and our desire to hurt other people so we can get back to gettin’ some revenge for something or whatever.

How does it all end?  Not sure.  Do I care if gun owners have to jump through some more hoops before they go on arming themselves – regardless of the rationale for it?  Not really.  Is it your right to own a gun for private use under the constitution – yeah, probably.  But, why do you feel the need to be such a dick about it.  No one likes their rights shoved down their throat.  Even those of us who could give two shits about yours.  Do I want to confiscate all guns? No. Not even close.

Just chill folks.  And, take a look at what you have or haven’t done to be part of it – both the solution and the cause is within each of us.  And, what gets us to a better place – not just a more aggressive or more regulated one.