My Thoughts on Orlando and US Gun Control
It's hard to think of anything this week without considering the terrible events that took place in Orlando. Too many lives were lost, too many people were hurt and too much hatred was vented.
We are supposed to be civilised human beings.
The Orlando atrocity was both a hate crime against LGBTA people and an act of terrorism. The loss of life is simply horrendous and my heart goes out to the families of the victims and to those who survived and now have to live with the mental and physical scars of the actions of one man.
Homophobia is wrong. Transphobia is wrong. It's time love really was the answer.
I don't care which religion you subscribe to or what you think your religious books say. Every single one of them has been interpreted by a human being and human beings get things wrong. Usually because they want something out of the interpretation, often to stop something they are frightened of. Well it's time to grow up and realise that we're all human beings.
That goes for bigoted governments, homophobic organisations and general arseholes too - they only want to give you someone to hate so you might not see everything they're doing.
LGBTA people deserve the same rights, privileges and love the rest of us do.
Just in case you're wondering, I'm a practising Christian and totally willing to call out my own faith for its homophobic views. I think the Church of England's bigotry when it comes to LGBTA issues is reprehensible. If God is Love we should damn well be standing up for everyone and telling the Anglican communion it can go jump with its homophobia.
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Then of course there is the whole issue of gun control in the USA. I'm British, I look at US gun control, or lack there of, and think it's insane. Not just a little bit nuts, but totally and utterly barking!
There is only one reason I can think of for using an assault rifle and that is to kill people. It's not a hunting weapon, it's a killing weapon. They are designed for use on the battlefield to create maximum damage. Letting a civilian own one is sheer madness.
In the UK we had a school shooting incident involving a hand gun, the Dunblane Massacre - you know what we did? We banned them. Here's a whole article on Firearms policy in the UK. Our politicians might be full of sh*t about other things, but at least they have that one right.
Then there is Australia; a guiding light when it comes to the implementation of gun control.
I've lost count of the number of mass shootings in the US that I've seen in the news over the last few years. It's like they've become the norm not the exception. For heaven's sake - the US needs gun control and the NRA needs castrating. There's a line and it's been crossed way too many times.
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My prayers are with the victims of the Orlando atrocity, their families, the LGBTA community, the US people and all other victims of such terrible crimes. I wish you peace and hope and love for the future.
Words of wisdom, Tasha. I worry about what is going to take for the US politicians to bring in sensible gun control. I accept that AR means Armolite not assault rifle, but I still can't understand why a hunter needs a semi-automatic weapon. I come from a hunting family and that seems crazy.
ReplyDeleteNo gun control is perfect, some guns will always find there way into the wrong hands - like the tragic killing today in England of Jo Cox MP. But gun control does reduce the instances of massacres, whether they are Dunblane or Orlando.
We also need to foster more tolerance so that the reasons are minimised. But I suspect that takes more effort.
Well, on Twitter yesterday I saw filibuster trending and it seemed a few politicians were finally fed up and were trying to filibuster their way into better gun control over here. I do hope it works because, while I know that won't stop mass murders––they are a bred much like serial killers––but it will slow, deter, and lessen the loss of life.
ReplyDeleteI can never understand killing in the name of one's god, but how many wars have religion at the heart of them. Religious books are all written by men touting their views. I may as well believe in Hobbits and Elves.
ReplyDeleteIt's really sad and horrific, and the gun situation in the US is a bizarre one. I read an interesting article on the issue, and according to it, most US people support higher gun control, but they also support the abstract idea of "the right to own guns" (as a Constitutional right at that). Which means that the passionate pro-gun people (a minority in the States, if I've gotten the info right), can make a lot of noise about how the government wants to take one's guns away (i.e. one's *rights*), and so people get upset and nothing passes. It's really, really bizarre. I don't really understand how people can be so easily manipulated by an obvious agenda on, say, the NRA's part. Here's the article, if you want to read it: http://www.vox.com/2015/10/3/9444417/gun-violence-united-states-america
ReplyDeleteAs an American I, too, think our gun laws are insane and am very ashamed of what is going on in this country. Our politicians are bought and paid for by gun lobbyists and people die every day because of it. I cannot imagine what idiots we look like to the rest of the world. All I can say is, not all of us think that way--we need gun control now.
ReplyDelete@Kathleen01930 Blog
Every time this kind of thing happens I hold my head and wonder how humans can be so cruel to each other.
ReplyDeleteI've done some research into the gun control issue, and just recently found an article in the NY Times that was rather surprising. We've had a gun control law since 1934 that most of us have never heard of. It's call the National Firearms Act, and it has kept the 4 million registered weapons from being implicated in crimes such as the horror in Orlando. The NRA shakes its fist as this kind of law and maintains it will bring an end to the Second Amendment. Well, this law is getting pretty long in the tooth and so far I see no end to that amendment.
I'm going to do more research and see what I can dig up, but how interesting to find out about a law that seems to be curbing some gun violence. I'd like to know why this law couldn't be fortified to extend its power even more.