AndyS
AndyS's JournalA special note to those who hijacked my Sandy Hook thread.
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It was December 12, 2014.
Friday morning I spent with my 2 year old granddaughter, her sitting on my lap watching the talking heads on TV. This little girl will be the most politically savvy woman in the world when she grows up. Mom drops her off around 8:30 on her way to work after leaving her two sons, 5 and 10, at school.
Shortly after 9:30 AM the Sandy Hook reporting began.
OK, I thought, another mentally deranged guy going off after being fired, taking it out on the admins who did the deed to him. All the while the kids are safe, after all what kind of monster would hurt little kids?
There are scenes of teachers leading children single file at a dead run from the building.
About noon, my baby girl still on my lap, I learn that there are children among the casualties. Jesus! They must be collateral injuries. Nobody could possibly intentionally hurt innocent little kids, right?
The police have set up a reunion site at a nearby fire station for parents to pick up their children. Panicked parents are arriving and milling about looking for their children. Police surround the school and search the nearby wooded area.
I put Kate down for a nap about 2:30. It’s hard to let her go although she fell asleep in my arms an hour ago and my arms are cramping from the awkward way she lay on my chest. I go back to CNN and MSNBC.
The coroner is speaking to the press. There are 26 casualties. Six faculty and 20 students. The students are between 6 and 7 years of age. Multiple gunshot wounds to all victims. The bodies are being prepared for identification by photograph. “My forensic photographers are very good . . .” A journalist asks, “How can you be so detached?” Not the most professional question ever asked but by now the entire press corps are bawling their eyes out, professionalism has long since left the scene. The coroner answers, “I have work to do. There will be time for the other later . . .”
I sob for the next hour.
3:35 the boys walk home from school. By now I know that most of the casualties are students between 5 and 10 years old. I try not to over-react to the boys. Don’t want to freak them out, don’t want to interrupt the daily routine. We have snacks, they do homework and I check it.
Homework done we have root beer floats and as always I have to wash Kate’s face, hands and everything within reach. Still trying not to let on anything is wrong I send them up to the “kid’s room” to watch Cartoon Network.
Now that I’m alone I break down again. I cry, sob, boohoo uncontrollably in the privacy of my bedroom away from the kids for an hour or so. I gotta’ pull myself together ‘cause there are more snacks to disperse and stories to be heard about the school day.
7:30 Mom gets home to collect her kids. Her eyes are red. Mine too. We talk briefly and she hugs the little ones hard enough to elicit grunts. Thank God it’s the weekend and she can keep them close.
Shortly after they leave my wife comes home. I tell her of the day’s events. We order Chinese delivery because I’m not able to prepare a meal. I don’t have much of an appetite, stirring the broccoli and beef with my chopsticks. Watch some fluff on TV until 11:00 and go to bed. About 1:00 AM I wake, stare at the darkness for awhile and again break down sobbing out loud waking Lynn. She holds me, trying to comfort me until I finally cry myself to sleep. I wake again around 5:00 and give up on sleep. Make coffee. Sit in the dark. Don’t want to watch TV, can’t deal with what I’ll see.
About 8:30 Lynn comes out all dressed. She has to go to the office to meet deadlines. I have a shopping list so we kiss and go our different ways.
I shop at small ethnic groceries. You can buy 12 oz. of spice for less than the .3 oz. jar at the megamart and it’s an excuse to ride my motorcycle. I ride across town, select some fresh vegetables and the spices I need and check out. On the way out I see a beautiful 4 year old girl; little round face, flawless ebony skin, huge bright eyes and pigtails. The kind of innocent beauty that makes me wish I had a studio again. I break down. People stare as I leave, tears streaming as I pull my helmet on. Half blind I ride the 6 or so miles back to the house and hunker down to pull myself together. I so much want my babies close to me.
Saturday night is a repeat of Friday night. Left over Chinese uneaten. No sleep. Sunday is a repeat of Saturday with wife pulling overtime and me looking at a shopping list that includes necessities for dealing with a two year old. Fruit juice, peanut butter and jelly. I drag myself to the nearest megamart. See a mother and ‘tween daughter. She says something to her mother, they laugh and Mom pulls her close. I leave my half filled cart and going home.
I take over-the-counter drugs to sleep. They work until about 4:00 AM.
Monday morning my daughter drops the boys at school and Kate with me. She’s wearing reflective aviator sunglasses. Kate squeals and lunges into my arms. Mom takes the sunglasses off showing red raw eyes and says, “I have this information but I don’t know how to process it. Why must I be afraid to take my kids to school?” I can’t answer. “There’s a cop at the school house door. Is this what it comes to? Armed guards for kids? I don’t want my kids in an armed camp, it just isn’t right.” I can’t answer. We hug, peck-on-the-cheek and she goes off to work. I hug my grandbaby for the next few hours until she’s sick of Granddad and goes off to watch Elmo. The boys come home, there’s ice cream floats, homework and then the 5 year old hands me note from the school. There’s been a threat taped to the front door of his school. Police are investigating, we’ll be informed and bla bla bla. He asks what it’s about. I tell him somebody said they would do bad things and that’s why the policeman was at his school to keep him safe. He’s okay with that.
Tuesday morning is routine except I take inventory of my life. I collect curio and relic firearms. I have a number of long guns designed in the 19th century and two semi automatic pistols. When I say long guns I mean so long you have to hold them vertically to make a u-turn in the average hallway. They are historic artifacts. I bought the short guns because each has a unique design characteristic, each unique in history, design and function. I’m there. I don’t need the semi auto pistols. I don’t feel the need for self defense. I don’t even enjoy shooting them the few times a year they come out of the locked gun safe. Up until now I’ve seen them only as curiosities, an abstract part of history. I can’t look at them like that anymore.
I call the BATF&E and ask how to dispose of them because I have a federal firearms license and am liable to scrutiny of every gun I have by serial number. I don’t want to give them away, I want them destroyed. The agent informs me that the guns must be cut in pieces through the receiver. What if I field strip them and smash each piece with my sledge hammer? No, that isn’t acceptable. Someone might find the parts and re-assemble them. I said, “Hon, you haven’t seen me and my hammer.” She chucked and said she was sorry, the law is the law. I should contact local law enforcement and turn them over to them, get a receipt. Better yet call Navarro county sheriff’s department, they have a program that melts the guns down into paperweights.
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At this point I stopped writing. I had finally run out of emotion, the gaping wound in my soul was beginning to crust over.
As an end note, I had become a FFL so I could buy the antiques for my grandchildren. One for each of them, a piece of history. Now that they are turning 18 and can legally own one they seem to have no interest. I guess the endless active shooter drills have had an affect. I'll have them destroyed.
I'll not be responding to any replies.
Yesterday a gunner told me I had to compromise with them.
I have been told that I must compromise with gunners to get any additional restrictions on guns. Let us see what gunners have now before we consider giving them more in exchange for any crumbs they offer.
Gunners have:
More guns than people in the US. Sixty-five times more guns than all the military and all the police forces in the country combined.
Legal protection for gun sellers, makers and distributors from civil suits. The only industry with such protection.
Unfettered access to guns without a background check. They're called 80% receivers and are available on the internet to ANYONE. Even a 13 year old can buy and assemble a gun kit.
'Must issue' licenses and concealed carry permits. No human intervention regardless of local and familial concerns.
Guaranteed purchase of a gun in 3 days even if the background check hasn't been completed by a system that doesn't even report all agencies to the background data base.
Over the counter retail access to military grade weaponry that can be easily and legally converted to emulate full auto machine guns. Bump stocks are on again/off again legal and auto-sear/forced-reset trigger assemblies haven't been addressed.
100 round magazines available over the internet with no background check to go with those converted full auto guns some of which were assembled from 80% receivers with no background check.
Thirteen states have 'constitutional carry' with no restrictions on concealed or open carry, many with no background checks or training.
Thirty eight states have 'stand your ground' laws allowing anyone who feels threatened to shoot another person without the responsibility to retreat if possible. Note the words “feels threatened”.
Those are just the highlights of what I'm supposed to compromise with. What do they want for a compromise?
Universal reciprocity for concealed carry licenses; get a CC in one state and carry anywhere across state lines.
“Clarify” the 1934 National Firearms Act that defines guns that are regulated, ie machine guns, sawed off shotguns and rifles, silencers and 'other destructive devices'. The NFA requires a $200 tax and extensive background check for each weapon bought. Yes, Virginia, you can buy a full automatic machine gun for just a $200 tax and the retail price. Also grenade launchers and other assorted things. 'Clarify' is gunner shorthand for eliminating all the distinctions and selling all this stuff to everyone over the counter at the local gun store.
What next? Subsidize the ownership of guns? A monthly gun supply tax credit?
So, NO I'm not compromising with gunners. FUCK GUNNERS.
It's been nine years.
Nine years since I sat with my 3 year old grand daughter in my lap watching the reporting of Sandy Hook on MSNBC.
Nine years since 20 first grade children were shot 400 times and 6 of their teachers died with them.
Nine years and to this day the last five minutes of their lives reverberates in my head. The sound of gunshots in a small room, the screaming, calling for Mommy and Daddy, the smell of cordite and blood.
Just like it was yesterday.
We have done NOTHING in nine years.
WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH US?
There are no statistics for gun violence attributed to non criminals . . .
I have wondered if all the gun violence increases (20-30% every year since 2014) is attributable to 'criminals' or perhaps to legal gun owners. I always hear from gunners that they must have a gun to protect themselves from criminals and if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns but I've wondered if the unfettered access to guns (15,000,000 new ones a year) might have something to do with it.
I can't find any stats on law abiding citizens adding to the gun violence epidemic. Then it occurred to me DUH! once ya' pull that shiny new protection out and shoot somebody wrongly, YOU'RE A CRIMINAL!
The folks over at 538 did some research and it seems the FBI is reporting a 'time to crime' decrease in crime guns. Time to Crime is the time between the NICS background check on a gun buy and when it shows up at a crime scene. They keep records on that stuff. It turns out that the 'time to crime' for guns less than a year old has increased 60% in 2021. The assumption is that guns that are less than 7 months old are still in the hands of the original buyer; the one that passed a background check proving they are not a criminal. The 3 month 'time to crime' has also increased dramatically.
This means that a big portion of the increase in gun violence isn't attributable to 'criminals' but to 'law abiding citizens' who became criminals with their new gun.
Who would have thought? The more law abiding citizens with guns the more law abiding citizens become criminals when they shoot someone.
Will someone protect me from the law abiding citizens?? Please??
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/what-new-data-on-gun-recoveries-can-tell-us-about-increased-violence-in-2020/
Some random thoughts strung together . . .
There are more guns in America than people.
There are about a million more added every year.
The FBI has warned for the last decade that the right wing militia types are the greatest terror threat we face.
Evidence points to organized militia involvement in the Jan 6 insurrection, ie Proud Boys, 3%ers, Oath Keepers.
One of the local gunners pointed out that only 3% of gun owners own 50% of guns in civilian hands. He's the expert and I'll accept his word. That's roughly 200 million guns in the hands of 3 million zealots or about 60 guns each.
Who are these people and what have they in mind for that armory?
It is the opinion of world leaders that US democracy is backsliding toward authoritarianism.
If Trump or someone like him runs again and loses, what happens next?
Homicide is more than twice as likely to kill a pregnant or postpartum person than any other leading
cause.Considering that guns in the hands of intimate partners are a leading cause of femicide and the number one indicator of gun violence in general you'd think it a no brainer to simply remove guns from those convicted of domestic violence. Yet the gun lobby and many gunners vehemently oppose such measures. Gunners will tell you that it's because someone they date my falsely accuse them of domestic violence just to get even for some imagined slight. You know, you just can't trust the bitch. The gun lobby characterizes it as 'confiscation', the biggest boogie man in all gundom. The same is true of 'red flag' laws that allow a family member or law enforcement to petition the court to issue a temporary gun removal order. Oh noes! They all lie just to get even with me for, well, something . . .
The other no brainer is safe storage laws that require guns to be secured under lock and key when not in use or on the owner's person. Oh good God NO! I must have immediate access to my gun in case the zombie apocalypse begins while I'm surfing DU!! The other reason gunners oppose safe storage laws is, and I'm not making this up as it happened right here on DU, if they used their gun for self defense they would be charged with breaking the safe storage laws because they could not have possibly gotten the gun in time if it were secured!
70% of households do not have a gun. When will the 70% stop sucking up to the 30% teeny weenie brigade? When will we who aren't afraid of our own shadows, the vast majority of us who can leave our homes without a loaded gun tell our congressmen to shut the gun machine down?
I have a couple of questions.
— Tim Pounds, sheriff of Douglas County, Georgia, after a 13-year-old boy fatally shot his 14-year-old sister with a ghost gun assembled with parts he bought online, in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
In a country where there are more guns than people is there nothing more we can do?
If violence and death are the price of freedom, why is it that only the innocents pay it?
Gun violence sends injury reports soaring 80%!
In 2019, 23 patients were brought in for a violent firearm related injury. In 2020, that number nearly doubled, jumping to 42 patients – a 80% increase.
Dr. Ann O’Rourke, the Trauma Center Medical Director at UW Health, says 38 gun-shot victims have been treated through October of this year.
“These injuries are devastating injuries,” said Dr. O’Rourke. “We should look at firearm-related injuries more like how we would look at a pandemic.”
Is anybody listening? Does anybody give a shit? Is this really just the 'cost of freedom'?
What the fuck is wrong with us?
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Gender: MaleHometown: Pelican Bay, TX 76020
Home country: United States
Current location: home
Member since: Thu Jan 20, 2005, 02:07 PM
Number of posts: 14,559