Thursday, May 29, 2014

The #NotOneMore Campaign Must Rule the Day


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.