A day
further forward.
Christmas
is coming along nicely. Our little tree is up, the cards dispatched, the
pudding made (although not yet steamed), the hat knit. I have a couple of days
in hand to re-group and try to advance the non-seasonal aspects of life – clean
clothes, accounts, that sort of thing.
Except that
Newtown
Is gun
control possible? Would gun control help?
I’ll go get
the Sunday paper in a moment and read all about it. One detail on which I feel
completely confident without waiting to be told, is that the killer’s father
wasn’t a member of his household.
Each
morning’s blog is pretty much a distillation of thots entertained during the
previous day. And so today there is nothing else.
I think gun control would help. As a very elderly American writer friend said to me in an e-mail "nobody who 'wants' a gun needs one".
ReplyDeleteRight now it is hard to feel enthusiastic about Christmas.
After every one of these obscene massacres in the US, we ask "How many more will it take before we can get sensible gun control?" The papers today (I read the Washington Post & NY Times; don't watch much TV) seem optimistic that something might happen this time. Everyone is in shock that 20 little children, ages 6 and 7, were each shot multiple times. One child apparently sustained 11 bullet wounds. In what universe does that make sense?
ReplyDeleteThe guns were owned by the (now-deceased) mother. They were "legally registered." But were they locked up? Was her troubled son protected from access to these weapons? Apparently not. Why not?
We are all in mourning. We hang our heads in the international community as the world looks on in wonder that a powerful country like the US seems unable to solve this problem.
I'm a Simon's Rock alumna. This happened 20 years to the day after a student was able to buy a gun in the morning and kill a professor, a fellow student and injure 4 others in that evening.
ReplyDeleteIt ain't happened in 20 years. I am outraged that nothing has changed in 20 years.
I'm troubled that you leap to the idea of single parenthood. It sounds as though you are blaming his mother. Many wonderful young men, my little brother included, were brought up well by a single woman, rather than in unhealthy households where two adults happen to live.
ReplyDeleteThe news has reported that his parents divorced three years ago http://mobile.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/12/15/peter_lanza_reporter_tells_adam_lanza_father_of_connection_to_sandy_hook.html so at best a young adult wasn't staying close to his father.
But please don't further the single parent stigma.
Gun contol certainly seems to have helped in Australia, where we have quite strict laws. It helps, but won't prevent, unfortunately.
ReplyDeleteIt's frightening to think that nothing will be done. There are so many guns here that you could never get rid of them. There is talk of banning assault weapons, but do they think the "bad guys" are just going to hand them over and say "it was fun while it lasted". I think that in this day and age so much attention is put on having everything new, therefore both parents work, or a single parent works to provide everything. Just trying to keep up, leaves little time for teaching the values of patience and earning something. Then there is the issue of the television programs and video games that are so violent. After seeing this kind of action day after day I think it becomes part of a young persons thinking - it becomes part of their reality. And it is embarrassing that a nation so powerful can be so weak. Freedom has its price, but the cost here was too high. Despite the present conditions, there are so many families that do such a good job raising their children to respect life and learn to live with good values. Unfortunately, some of those families are suffering dearly this weekend.
ReplyDeleteMargaret Mary
I find it frightening that so many are buying guns now, in case some gun regulations ARE passed. It seems so wrong...
ReplyDeleteI wish with all my heart for gun control, I will never understand the feelings of entitlement that gun owners possess, nor the outrage they express when taking them away is proposed.
ReplyDeleteI hang my head as the world looks on in sorrow and wonder at my fellow citizens.