When my oldest was toddling around, he picked up a line from a movie that I was watching and repeated it incessantly. Now I want to share that phrase with you, America, but I’ll just say it once: DROP THE FUCKING GUN!
I know they’re precious to you. I get our history. But you know it’s time. You’ve seen too many children killed. Too many massacres in everyday places.
If the politicians can’t do it, do it yourselves. One by one. In honor of every innocent person murdered. In honor of the 111 people shot in this country today. Or the 56 thousand shot this year.
Don’t do the “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people,” thing. You’re too smart for that. You understand the facts. You know that countries with stricter laws have less deaths. It’s a simple matter of percentages. Let’s put them in our favor. In our kids favor. In our grandchildren’s favor.
If you don’t have a gun, give up something else. Violent film? Toy Uzis? Killing games? Bad attitudes? See your therapist or your pastor when you’re angry. Talk to a friend. Make peace with something that irks you.
Things are bad in this country. See them. Realize how close gun violence is. For all of us.
Recently I had to wake up to that fact myself. Just moments after telling a foreign friend that she needn’t worry while she was here (“I’ve never been threatened by a weapon,” I said), I remembered the neighbor who killed his boss at our local co-op last summer; and the parents of students killed in hunting accidents; and the students who shot themselves.
How close is it to you?
Kelly Salasin, July 2012
For more blogging on guns, violence & culture, click the links below:
Death as Entertainment (murder in schools)
Kelly Salasin 
Leave a comment