I Refuse...
I refuse to buy into the paranoia that I am likely to be killed by some random psycho at any given moment. Yes, it can happen. Yes, it does happen. No, it's not likely to happen. Incidents of mass shootings receive large amounts of media attention that feeds our fear. We remember them because they happen infrequently relative to everything that happens in our everyday lives. The person statistically most likely to kill me sleeps in my bed at night. Every single one of us is more likely to be killed by someone we know than by a random stranger. Our children are more likely to die in our cars than be killed by random gunfire, but we still insist on driving them to school because if they walk, they might be killed by random gunfire.
I refuse to believe that the only answer to random gun violence is more guns. An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness. Starting a micro-level arms race is only going to feed the paranoia and mistrust that this country already suffers from already and to far too much of an extent.
I refuse to believe that this is a "Christian Nation" when Christianity was founded by a man who encouraged non-violence, declared "turn the other cheek", and encouraged His followers during His life to love one another. It seems the folks who claim to be His followers now seem so enamored of weapons of violence and death. How does that work?
If you don't like this mini-rant, tough. Go rebut it in your own blog. I am on Facebook every day. You're not going to change my mind by posting your random stories from Fox News/National Review/Washington Times/World Net Daily/Free Republic; your outdated/exaggerated facts about other countries whose gun laws seem more permissive than ours; your one-in-a-million stories about the one heroic shooter who managed to stop a mass killing with his own gun. Yes, I see all of your posts, all of your rebuttals. I see your point. I accept that you have it. I accept that it's different from mine. Now please go away and let me feel the way I do, and express it as I see fit, with no harm done to anyone. I will happily show you the same courtesy.
I refuse to believe that the only answer to random gun violence is more guns. An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness. Starting a micro-level arms race is only going to feed the paranoia and mistrust that this country already suffers from already and to far too much of an extent.
I refuse to believe that this is a "Christian Nation" when Christianity was founded by a man who encouraged non-violence, declared "turn the other cheek", and encouraged His followers during His life to love one another. It seems the folks who claim to be His followers now seem so enamored of weapons of violence and death. How does that work?
If you don't like this mini-rant, tough. Go rebut it in your own blog. I am on Facebook every day. You're not going to change my mind by posting your random stories from Fox News/National Review/Washington Times/World Net Daily/Free Republic; your outdated/exaggerated facts about other countries whose gun laws seem more permissive than ours; your one-in-a-million stories about the one heroic shooter who managed to stop a mass killing with his own gun. Yes, I see all of your posts, all of your rebuttals. I see your point. I accept that you have it. I accept that it's different from mine. Now please go away and let me feel the way I do, and express it as I see fit, with no harm done to anyone. I will happily show you the same courtesy.
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