The #NotOneMore Campaign Must Rule the Day
By Mary MacElveen
May 29, 2014
At this very moment there is another Santa Barbara shooter
just waiting for the right moment to exact his psychopathic revenge on the rest
of us. How many more Sandy Hooks,
Aurora, Colorado, Virginia Techs and others must we endure as a society?
At this given moment, there are ticking time bombs watching
the distorted video feeds on Youtube.com and seeing just how many views it has
received. They are seeing themselves in
this shooter. They are ticking time
bombs that must be disarmed by our pathetic politicians who refuse to do
anything about it.
When the media pounces upon such events, they do so with gusto
with pundit after pundit opining as the rest of us grow angry or worse apathetic. We see the memorial services come and go, yet
nothing is done to stop it. Then the media
tires of covering these events and moves on.
I found it ironic how CNN chose day-in-an-day-out coverage of a missing
plane than it will these horrific events.
The other night as I watched an interview between Richard
Martinez whose only child Christopher Martinez was slaughtered in that mass
shooting and it broke my heart. He told
CNN’s Anderson Cooper that he was sick of getting the ‘I’m sorry’ phone calls
from congress members. His clear message
to all congress members was to actually do something to stop these mass
killings of innocent victims.
As you will notice, I refuse to name these psychotic killers
because I do not want to give them any publicity.
I am so sick and tired of the NRA’s influence over our body
politic. The #NotOneMore campaign must
rule the day and influence our politicians on behalf of we the people.
There are just too many lives being lost in our country due
to guns. Often it is the mass shootings
that gain notoriety, but guns are taking the lives of innocent victims each and
every day. Just look at how children get
their hands on guns thinking it’s a toy and accidently kills some other
child. While that incident is not the
government’s fault, I blame the person who owns that gun for not locking it up.
Just a few weeks ago, the block that I grew up on in
Hempstead, NY two people became the victims of a shooting and that once
peaceful block was taped off. To me it
offended my senses and all of those who at one time lived on that block. The house it occurred at was a house I use to
play in as a child.
It seems to me that our politicians like to get involved in
violence that takes place overseas while turning their back on the violence
here in our own back yard. Well enough
is enough.
I refuse to be apologetic to all second amendment folks who
believe everyone has the right to own a gun.
No they don’t! We need stricter
laws as to who gets to own a gun. Were
any of these mass shooters part of any ‘well regulated militias’? No, they were
not. Most of them were loners living in
their own psychotic world. Are everyday
shooters a part of any militia? No, they
are criminals seeking to use a gun to end another’s life.
Are lawful gun owners with the laws as they stand now a part
of any ‘well-regulated militia’? As a
former gun owner, I was not.
I used to be a gun owner of a semi- automatic rifle, but got
rid of it. In purchasing that weapon
which was a Ruger Mini 30, I was not subjected to any back ground check. Here was a gun with a magazine clip that
could hold over ten rounds of ammunition.
The magazines are easy to empty and to reload another full one.
I would take it to target shoot at a gun range at Calverton,
NY. How many ticking time bombs are
honing their skills at shooting ranges?
We know that the Sandy Hook shooter’s Mom would take him to target shoot
even knowing he had mental issues. His
father even detailed the account of his mentally disturbed life in an article
for The New Yorker titled The Reckoning. It’s a bone-chilling account of that shooter’s
psychotic life.
This issue of gun violence must also fall on parents and
society itself. We are living in an
increasing violent society. Parents
must get into their children’s lives and ferret out any dangerous signals
coming from them and most importantly get them help. If a person of authority at a child’s school
sees someone who appears to be a loner, he/she must intervene. We have intervention when it comes to
substance abuse: Why not for mental diseases that can lead to gun violence?
What frightens me is how easy it is to get one’s hand on any
semi-automatic rifle. All one has to do
is Google for them. You can even buy a gun
on Ebay. How many ticking time bombs that are hell bent on a mission of destruction
are availing themselves with these weapons through the Internet?
In conclusion, I am tired of politicians getting face time
through the media telling all of us just how sad they are when these mass
shootings occur. Tell us what you are
going to do about it. We who live our
daily lives are in need of protection. We
deserve the right to life. If you are a
pro-life elected official yet are for gun rights, then you are not pro-life at
all. You are part of the problem when
the NRA influences your beliefs and acts.
