My main focus today is not on the shooter but on the people that are effected by this....which is all of us...and especially the parents. Those of us, as parents, can relate to the feelings of fear when we imagine what we would do if our children were hurt or even killed. I know it freaks me out. Those thoughts come to me when I see things like people driving their cars with their kids jumping around in the back seats without seatbelts...you know, just like in the '70s. I immediately try to think of something else because its something that is beyond my control and that all I can do is make sure my child is safe...to the best of my ability. But I could never think of a scenario where I would drop my son off at school and drive off thinking about where I am going next not knowing that the guy that just walked past my car was getting ready to shoot everyone. And that is the underlining meaning behind how shocked we all are. No one ever thinks that someone is going to walk into our kid's school and do what that man did yesterday. And I do say never! When my son was in kindergarten, I was more concerned with him climbing on the monkey bars and falling off and hurting himself......but never anything like what that man did yesterday....NEVER!!
I feel very connected to the US for many reasons. I have family that live there....an aunt and my cousins, my mom and grandmother were from the US. My grandfather was in the US Airforce during WW2 and helped wire up the Pentagon....and when things like this happen, my heart sinks because I have ties to that great country. When President Obama addressed the nation....when he shed tears, so did I. I can only imagine what was going through his mind....he made me want to hug my son just to make sure that I knew he was safe. And then I hear some media reports that claim that his stance on gun control has been more lapse during his tenure as President.....and then that made me think....WHAT?????
Gun control...why is it only discussed when massive amounts of innocent people get shot in public places during peace time? President Reagon was shot on my birthday. I live in Canada....owning a gun is not a right, but a priviledge. Now I am not saying our country is totally innocent. We've had mass shootings before, like the shooting spree by a man in Montreal at the Ecole Polytechnique in 1989, killing 14 women. Now that incident, as tragic as it is, and the distance of time that it occurred should attest to the fact that gun control works. Make it harder for people to own guns.
In the United States, the 2nd amendment gives citizens the right to bear arms. It was enacted on December 15, 1791. Now, if my history lessons stuck, I do not remember hearing about semi/fully automatic weapons being available to the common man back then. As a matter of fact, I think the only style of guns available at that time were single shot muskets...cumbersome to reload. In the order to kill lots of people, either the victims had to stand in one spot so that the shooter could reload or a whole bunch of shooters could band together and shoot lots of people. I don't think the American forefathers had any premonition that one person could kill 26 people in a very short period of time. The 2nd amendment was created during a time when the country was in its beginning stages and that they needed to band together to protect their land and country. It was meant to bring together people that loved their country and were willing to join forces (create militias) to uphold their sovereignty. Well, I think that amendment is outdated and now needs to be amended to suit the times, and technology of weapons available. There are fully equipped police forces and a state of the art armed force to protect the country. The right to bear arms should be either amended to read the "priviledge" to bear arms...or even the right to "bare" arms...the right to wear sleeveless shirts. They should limit the power of the NRA and tell Ted Nugent to quit telling people that guns don't kill people, people kill people. Guess what? He's right! A couple of loaded handguns sitting on the coffee table are not going to sprout legs and walk to a school and shoot innocent children and adults. A gun will not sprout legs and walk into a shopping mall and announce its the shooter and proceed to kill people. But the fact is that the guns were "AVAILABLE" to a human being who then gave the guns the ability to kill a huge amount of people...that is the underlining factor. If there was tighter control on these machines that expel projectiles at mind boggling speeds, perhaps these tragic events would not occur.
I love America not only because of my ties through family, but because I like what your country represents. One day I may live there when my acting career gets to that point. I feel your pain and support you through this tragic time. I shed a tear for those precious lives lost yesterday and I encourage everyone to light a candle and share a moment of silence with your family members.
Let us move forward and support each other.......have a safe and joyous weekend my friends...
Glenn
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