Blood on our Hands
Today, my heart is heavy. My mind is in advocate mode. My body is tense and is perturbed. And I am being nudged to speak up. I must and I will. No politics. Just facts and a few questions that we must ask ourselves.
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, ensure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.” -Preamble, The Constitution of the United States of America
Let me start by defining some of the words that I believe are key words in the preamble above.
- People – human beings considered collectively
- Union – a state of agreement or harmony
- Establish – Set on a firm or permanent basis
- Justice – the quality of being fair and REASONABLE
- Insure – secure or protect
- Tranquility – quality of being calm
- Defense – means of protecting something from attack
- Promote – support or actively encourage
- Welfare – social effort to promote the basic physical and material well-being of people
- Liberty – the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions; a right or privelege
- Posterity – future generations
- Constitution – a body of fundamental principles according to which a state or organization is acknowledge to be governed
I am grateful to my eighth grade history teacher who made us memorize the preamble. School House Rock made this assignment a bit easier. I wasn’t happy about it then, but looking back it sparked my love of history and the ups and downs of the US. He also had us rewrite the Bill of rights, first ten amendments of the Constitution, in our own words. So today, let me attempt to write the preamble in my own words, with the definitions above in mind…
We the collective humans of the United States, in agreement, to form a more perfect agreement, to be firm and reasonable, protect and secure domestic calm, provide for protection from attacks, support all citizens basic physical and material well-being, and secure the blessing of freedoms of right and privilege, to ourselves and future generations, establish the fundamental principles for the United States of America.
That is my “rewrite,” I challenge you to try to rewrite in your own words. (rewriting the amendments are pretty interesting too. just saying)
Now to the amendment and issue that I am heavy hearted about, the second amendment. The basis of this amendment was written primarily for two reasons: 1. Right to self-defense (means of protecting oneself from attack) 2. hunting and sporting activities.
Let me make a couple things 100% clear: 1. I do not own a gun. 2. my overall knowledge on guns is very tiny- and I honestly wish I didn’t have to know what I do know. 3. I do live in an area where hunting seasons are celebrated as much as Christmas and Easter.
I do know that military weapons are being used in mass shootings. I do know that handguns are being used in shootings and suicides. I do know that knives are being used. I do love people that own guns. I do believe wholeheartedly there needs to be a reevaluation on what types of guns/knives are to be purchased/owned in the United States, and I also believe there needs to be some radical changes in the process of how they get in the hands of the owners.
These things are a must. And we can definitely write our leaders and urge them for changes!
But then what? I can’t just sit on my bottom and watch children be buried and at the very least, traumatized…
I do have an interest in how the human body works. Do you know what it’s like for a child to be hit by one of these bullets? If not, I encourage you to read this:
I do have an advocate heart for mental health. But this cannot be blamed on mental health. Yes, there is also a mental health crisis, and some of the assailants may suffer from mental health illnesses, but we are allowing them to purchase guns to hurt themselves or others. Not okay by any means.
I do have an advocate heart for children- babies to teens to young adults. This is where I begin to steam, so let me present some questions:
- If a elementary aged child knows there is a gun in the house – is struggling at school – does a gun lock and a top shelf of a closet qualify as “safe keeping?”
- If a child is struggling in school, and the school knows it, and a classmate reports he has a gun, but it is ignored, are we signaling positive “see something, say something” policy? Or are we writing off children yet again?
- If we claim our children have never done anything wrong- never hurt anybody- would NEVER _________(you fill in the blank), are we really helping or hindering? Because we know that’s not true of any one person, right?
- If there is guns in the home, for hunting or self-defense, isn’t it our job as adults to lock them up safely in proper safes? And those safes should only be accessed by adults trained to use those guns?
- If there are leaders that we have elected that claim their children under five already have a firearm and will know how to use it asap, shouldn’t that unravel us and send up red flags?
- If a high school junior is willing to go pick up his siblings and accidentally gets the road names mixed up, should he pay the consequences for someone else’s bias? He hadn’t even gotten a chance to say why he was there or anything, shouldn’t he have a chance?
- If someone pulls into your drive way and is trying to figure out where they are, and are not bothering you, should they lose their life? Seriously? I can comment on this one- because I used to live at the end of a long dirt driveway. Literally if I had a dollar for every car that came down our driveway and turned around, I would be a billionaire! Never did I ever think, I need to get a gun!
- If your having you’re birthday party and someone decides the whole party needs to suffer, and your brother is among the people who were killed, wouldn’t you want to know who was a suspect or if they knew anything?
Our children know to pull fire alarms when they hear gun shots. Our children know to report what they see. Our children deserve so much more credit than we give them. Unfortunately, we underestimate them. Many are crying out. Will we hear? Will we slow down to listen? The choice is ours.
Freedom? Right to own? I’m not at all trying to take away anyone’s freedom or rights. Just hear me out: Hunting, fishing, and loving everyday- great, you don’t need military weapons. Self-defense, I don’t know much, but this much I do know, a handgun will do. If you can explain to me why anyone needs to have a military weapon or anything more than a gun to hunt with in their possession, I will hear you out. But today I have these final questions for you: is it a freedom of self-defense or to shoot freely? is it a right to self-defense or to kill freely? is it a freedom to unite or dismantle families and communities? is the pride to protect MY territory right, standing in the way of seeing disruption and trauma its causing young lives and their families?
Statistically Guns are the #1 killer of children today. That is if you don’t believe abortion is killing, I happen to believe it is. Both kill. Both steal young lives. Both steal our future.
“We all got blood on our hands.” – Jack Johnson
Everytown is a great place for facts, research, and state-by state information on guns and rights.
Life Book of the Week: Loving Our Kids on Purpose, by Danny Silk
Song: Cookie Jar, by Jack Johnson
