Protecting Our Children....Family Values Part 5

Last April, Mike and I were visiting my family in SC.  Some children came to my brother's door $10 selling raffle tickets!  $10.00?  What was the prize?  

An assault rifle.

Assault Rifle

Later Mike and I laughed and commented to each other that only in South Carolina would children be selling raffle tickets with the prize being an assault rifle to raise money for a softball team.  Our only hope was that the children were running a scam, but the reality is this was no laughing matter at all...scam or not. 

The level of weapons held by people in the United States, including the militarization of the police, is  frightening.  About one third of the population has 300 million firearms that is averages out to one firearm per man, woman and child!

Where has that gotten us? In the past 47 years, more people in the U.S. have died from gun violence than in ALL the wars dating back to the War of Independence in the 1700s!   I know!  I could not believe it either when I first read it.

The horrors do not stop there....look at these facts...just in 2015 in the United States...

•  13,286 people were killed by firearms while 26,819 were wounded and these numbers do not include suicides.
• There were 372 mass shootings.  A mass shooting is defined by four or more people hurt or killed which can include the shooter.  That is MORE than one mass shooting a day!!!  (Source Mass Shooting Tracker*)
• There were 64 school shootings in 2015...more than one a week!!!  Not all resulted in injured or dead children - Thank God! - but 64 school shootings!

My stepdaughter, Jessica, wrote an excellent blog about her dialogue with her kindergartner, Charlotte, about ALICE (Alert, Lockdown, Inform, Counter, and Evacuate), the lock-down drill if there is an active shooter in school.

The program comes complete with a kid "friendly" book,  I'm Not Scared, I'm Prepared.  This book is about - get this -  

What.  Children.  Should.  Do.  If.  A.  Shooter. Is.  Shooting.  Up.  Your.  School.  Charlotte JUST turned 6 years old!

I cannot express the disgust, loathing, and fear this raises in me.  Why do we teach kids what to do in such a horrible situation?  Why not just get rid of the guns?

So much has been said (including by me) about mental health issues and random shootings and this is a concern, but...but...mentally ill people cannot shoot up places if they cannot get the guns and all that ammo.

Here in Nicaragua, caring for the mentally ill is not up to any modern standards.  And yet, Nicaragua is the second safest country in the Americas (second only to Canada).  There have been no shootings in schools or random places of business.  Why?

Guns are basically banned even though security guards, police, etc., have them.  Guns are also not worshiped. 

What are the "family values" people saying during this important election year about gun control?  

Well, a great many of them are actually gun advocates - and by the way, why do things (i.e. guns) need advocates?  

Protecting families.  Protecting our children.  These are aspects of our lives that need advocating...and....these protections are way more important than the craziness that is propagandized by the NRA, who buys off our government through their lobbyists, their campaign contributions and ads.

Let me conclude with this one last thought...many, many in our government, in the NRA, and "family value" people profess to be Christians.  I would ask them WWJD...What Would Jesus Do?  Do we really think he would arm himself to stay "safe" or buy assault rifles "to hunt"?

Really?

*Having to have a Mass Shooting Tracker says it all, does it not?

-Kathleen