Again, And Close To Home

OMG. May 6, 2023. Allen Premium Outlet Mall. Just 16 miles from our house, and only 3 miles from my parents. 

8 people killed. 

3 of the dead are school-aged kids (4th grade and 2nd grade and 6-year old). 

I re-read my post regarding the mass shooting in Ulvade, TX. 

Not much has changed in my mind since then, except for one thing:

Raise the minimum age to purchase a firearm; make that age higher for ban AR-15 / military style weapons.

I have shifted my stance -- I really believe we should, once again, ban the AR-15, the civilian version of the military-style rifle that was designed to quickly kill many people. Perhaps, there could be an exception process to earn the right to own an AR-15 as a civilian. However, I'm just not convinced there is a legitimate need for any and every civilian to have access to this powerful rifle. I've heard it is used for controlling destructive pests on ranch land, fun to shoot, used in shooting competitions, and it keeps the government/military guessing how much fire power the public has against them (ie. prevent tyranny). Psha... (Uh, do you not know the strength of our military?)

Our country does not allow automatic rifles, or hand grenades or missiles. It should not be hard to stop manufacturing and selling any more semi-automatic rifles and offer a buy-back program to start getting them off the streets. Sure, there will be thousands left in circulation, but that should not stop us from starting a commonsense approach to do something about this senseless violence that only happens in America. Maybe that will save a lot of families the grief in 5, 10, 15 years from now. (When is the best time to plant a tree? 20 years ago. When is the next best time? Now.)

And yes, I know, mass shootings are an emotional, reactionary event, that are only a drop in the bucket of gun deaths. But they seem to be getting more frequent and nothing is changing. We wear seatbelts. We have TSA. We have drinking and smoking restrictions. We have vaccines. We have tornado shelters. We have filtered water. These things safe lives. Tragedy is going to happen as long as their are humans around. But why not save more lives where we can? 

I am proud to be an America. I am not proud to own these statistics:

I blame ignorant people (I'm friends, and perhaps family, with some of them), cowardly politicians and greedy companies. We have amended the Constitution before to make things better for everyone (Hello, 13th, 15th, 19th Amendment, plus all the others). Why not this?