Why Isn't it Obvious and Questions

Why Isn't it Obvious, and Questions

I can't believe people are Still arguing about what should be done to Limit the number of mass shootings in this country!

When I came home from blind school I lived in the woods.  There were rabid skunks around which might chase us kids or our pets.  If rabies was suspected 14 very painful shots in the abdomen were administered.  Those who assumed they were bitten by a non-rabid skunk, or one of the wild dogs, (often dumped by city dwellers and left to form packs with others and fend for themselves), they often died a horrible death.  My parents would shoot skunks or wild dogs acting strangely or threatening us kids.  They used hand guns kept locked out of our reach to do this.

A squirrel or rabit might be killed for food, with a 22 caliber gun.  In order to stay healthy and because I can't afford either meat or health food store prices for protein I do eat deer.  I thank the spirit of any animal who sacrifices its life so I can live.

The friends who hunt a deer for me use deer rifles and hunt legally, in season.

Does anyone know people who hunt caribou, bear, or moose to sustain their lives, for meat?  Do they need semi-automatics for hunting these beings?  I seriously Doubt it since the Native peoples of Turtle Island, (North America) were able to hunt them with arrows, lances, harpoons, and spears.

The Reason semi-automatic weapons are called assault weapons is Because they are made for only One Purpose.  They are Made to Assault other Human Beings in large numbers.  This is why they can  come with such large clips of ammunition.  Americans can keep guns, but it is sad that we fear and hate one another so much that some of us think we need these mass people killers among us.  The word Sad barely begins to touch the depth of the problem.

New subject:  Mental Health.  The mass shooters who get news attention have a specific profile.  They are young white men who are loaners, have few if any friends.  Moms and dads, if this profile fits your son, don't wait and pray that they will be ok.  Try to Get them connected with Qualified help, Hospitalize them if you must.  It's terrifying to love and fear your own child.  But silence about these nice young men with no connection to others Needs to stop!  Of course some of them Will turn out ok.  But the ones who don't, ah, the ones who don't!

Question:  How many shootings of more that one person by a man with a semi-automatic weapon happen but Don't make the national news because they happen to people of color?  Is it basically disturbed young white men who commit these crimes?  Have the news media come just to expect such things in communities of people of color?  I really don't know. 

I grew up largely in St. Louis and do know about drive by shootings in poor neighborhoods where people of color are trapped.  But those which kill children or other unintended victims usually draw an outcry from the local community.  I am not justifying the killing of any person, whether it is intentional or not.  I am trying to ask if this profile only fits young white men.

On NPR a mom E-mailed in saying she had a very angry young man for a son.  She said all efforts and money seemed to him to be going to motivate young girls to live up to their potential.  Is this a reaction to changing demographics in the U.S?  Should affirmative action be income based rather than strictly race and gender based?  No, I don't think racial or gender discrimination has ended.  But I do think there are pockets of poor white people, mostly in rural areas, who get no help.

Why don't police "gun buy back" programs focus on semi-automatic and other heavier war weaponry?

An interesting comment was made by a Canadian journalist on the BBC.  She said people in the U.S. often kept guns because they didn't trust their government nearly as much as Canadians tend to.  I understand that, given our history of seizing land by force from Mexico, slavery, the Ku Klux Klan, etc.  These are acts in which Canada had no comparable role.  But I'm not sure how different Native American history in the U.S. is from First Nations history in Canada.

Last subject:  Truckers, we need you to break down around the sites of funerals in Conneticut, like you did when the so-called church tried to invace President Obama's appearance at the Memorial Service for the more than 100 dead killed in the Joplin, Mo. Tornado of 2011. That tornado took the lives of more that 160 people and you truckers and the Patriot Guard, Without semi-automatic weapons, were there to help us.  I haven't forgotten.

  Some thoughtless bozoes are evidently staging their political rallies for and against gun control around the funerals of children and the heroes who died to protect them in Conneticut.

I don't Want this to be true, but my wishes Rarely coincide with reality.

Petitions to consider are below.

As Americans process the grief, fear, and anger stemming from last Friday's tragic

shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, many are calling for action. In response to the

shooting, more than 1,000 people -- including many in and around Newtown -- started

petitions on Change.org, calling for tighter gun laws, stronger mental health services,

and support for the victims' families.

Here are a few petitions calling for meaningful action in response to the tragedy

at Sandy Hook Elementary School. You can

click here to browse and sign other petitions

 started in response to the tragedy in Newtown.

 Reenact the Assault Weapons Ban and make it law

Reenact the Assault Weapons Ban and make it law

 Increase the availability of mental health services now

Increase the availability of mental health services now

 Protect grieving families from politically charged demonstrations at funerals

Protect grieving families from politically charged demonstrations at funerals

 Walmart: Stop selling assault rifles in stores

Walmart: Stop selling assault rifles in stores

You can read and sign other petitions started in response to the tragedy in Newtown

by

clicking here.

Thanks for being a change-maker,

- Tim and the Change.org team