It must happen!! Red Flag law, no purchase of assault weapons.
I feel pretty hopeless and regularly look at other countries to move to... Something needs to be done to stop the senseless deaths, but it's like fighting an angry tide to make any changes. I don't think we'll ever be rid of guns (hunting and 2nd amendment is treated like the Bible), but there shouldn't be public access to assault rifles. Absolutely not necessary. I want my children to be safe and other mothers to not be mourning more loss.
I firmly believe that there should be gun control with certain weapons not available to anyone and pretty stringent rules in the applications for other types of guns. I hate that our kids have to be afraid of mass shootings. On the flip side, mandatory gun education should be taught in the schools starting in the fourth grade. Hunter safety should be included, and a mental health screening should be done starting in the eighth grade with the results kept in a national database. Parents who wish to gift guns to their children should have to also pass the same requirements for screening, and all gifted guns need to be registered. I could say lots more, but as a mom, I take this pretty seriously in terms of reforms and regulations. We need to get this under control to provide our kids with a sense of empowerment instead of fear.
As a human, outraged, disturbed, disbelieving that we are in this insane place and not doing a damn thing about regulating, restricting and buying back the guns nationwide.
Even before being a mother I hated guns. And before getting pregnant, I thought about how I would feel with my future child going to school and being out in the world with guns being so protected and available to those that shouldn't have them. I'm petrified nothing will change by the time my son is in school. I have no faith that republicans will choose to put in place stricter gun laws. I honestly just get too angry and sick thinking about it and don't know how to move beyond that.
Ugh. I want to home school all my babies. I need to keep control and it seems the only way
Extremely passionate. Freedom to me is the right for all humans to go to school, the grocery store, a parade, the movie theatre, a concert, places of worship, without the fear and threat of being killed. If the assault rifle ban is passed, I envision kissing my kids goodbye to school every morning without thinking "this could be the last time I see them."
I'm not interested in perpetuating fear.
Gun control. Such a hot topic. The amount of school shootings is out of control. We have reached a degree of being desensitized to them all. I mean, seriously... we all remember the first "big" one (although all school shootings should be considered big) Sandy Hook. But, can we name others? We sit and watch the news as we eat dinner, feel a little queasy about the random shootings happening all over the world, finish eating... and our lives go on almost without another thought to the latest shooting. But is this a gun control thing? Or a parenting thing? or are the people doing the shootings as random as the shooting sprees themselves. Gun control. It is and always will be a loaded subject. My husband had a whole safe of guns, but has never shot any of them unless in a controlled area like a shooting range. And there are parents all over the world the same as him, but have adult children doing terrible acts depite being raised to respect the guns. Gun control is good for the mentally ill, the felons capable of killing with no remorse.. but how do you control those strict "good" parents who are as stunned as anyone that their child picked up a gun and changed the course of his life and those around him with no warning or red flags. How do you judge who should own a gun when the mixture of who is gunning down people is so random and unexpected. It makes my decision on gun control too murky to really decide. I continue to fear them, worry on shooting range days, and watch the destruction of my cousin's family wven when their son was found not guilty for a shooting in a Walmart parking lot that killed a man.. a Dad, a brother, a husband. Her son left a shooting range, carried a concealed weapon and killed a man who approached him angrily. He was raised with guns, raised to respect them... and still reacted instantly and shot a man twice. He was not a felon, not mentally ill or restricted from guns. He was an 18 year old kid raised shooting guns legally and with much care and teaching in respecting them. In my mind, the jury is still out on gun control.
I grew up in a home that had guns. They were always secured and were never accessible to us. I have a license to carry, but currently do not. My children will likely grow up knowing how to shoot a gun, but they will also respect them. I would give this all up for better gun control, for universal gun control. I hate that when I'm in a large crowd I fear there will be a shooting. I hate that I fear sending my children to school. I hate the current America we call home. I'd give up the right to carry any day, if it meant we all had the right to live our lives, free of being shot.
Our children's right to live trumps your right to an AR 15. You can't preach Pro life and stop caring after birth. There are bullet proof backpack inserts so they shield themselves..wtf!
I don't understand people not wanting stronger gun control, especially parents. I don't want to worry about our children doing active shooter drills before they should know what that means.
I feel that gun control is taught and practiced throughout a lifetime and respected throughout a lifetime. And I believe that such practice is not the norm
Hopeless. I feel like if there were any practicality at this point in my life, to move to another country, that the lack of gun control is one of the reasons I'd take my family and GTFO of merica.
We need more of it!
When my son was in kindergarten- more than 10 years ago- he brought his best friend home to play after school. As they sat stuffing crackers and cheese into their mouths as fast as they could so they could get back outside they recounted their day. "They told us to fight back and not hide so we are gonna be the ones because we are the strong boys." "Fight back?" I asked. They spoke as if we could have been talking about dragons or building blocks. "Yeah when the shooter comes in some kids are supposed to hide but we are supposed to jump up and take him down." As I stood there internalizing what they were explaining I knew one thing deep in my gut. They would be the boys to step up. The fact that this conversation was even happening, that these boys at 5 years of age had to go through active shooter training, and they'd already thought through taking down a gun man, that was the truest form of insanity and absurdity all at once. That was over ten years ago. Things have only gotten worse. These boys are now ready to head to college and they have both handled guns since a very young age. They are hunters. It is normal for my son to bring home dinner. A spruce grouse or hare end up on my counter almost weekly. He hunts alone and with friends. My son says this is why he isn't obsessed with guns. Because since before kindergarten he was taught unbendable rules about how to hold the gun, carry it, store it, and shoot it. To him it was a fishing pole or a knife, a tool for bringing home food. These guns though are not the weapons of mass shootings. That is entirely different. We'd gladly lose our tools to end the slaughter of our children. The worst is this though. I have zero hope that this will change. That might be the most heartbreaking of it. At least in a war you can hope for a victor, you can name an enemy, you can dream of peace. Is the 14 year old boy so lost and tortured that death by shooting felt like his only choice the enemy? Do you blame voters? Gun makers? Politicians? Humanity? There is no easy enemy but to look in the mirror and ask why we are sitting writing about this and not on a mass hunger strike until something changes. We have accepted this as normal and that is a whole different kind of terrifying. If we allow this to continue and we do, well then we'd allow any evil to move in and stay. So afraid so powerless we sacrifice our children.
I feel like America is okay with everyone (especially children) living in fear so gun control is never going to happen regardless how many school shootings there are.
More. Please, so much more.
Emphatically supportive, just like more people
Outrageous. Outrageous that a country with daily mass shootings and increasing gun violence and senseless loss of innocent lives refuses to put an end to this by enacting gun control. Furious that our elected officials refuse to take action and protect their constituents, furious that we have to live in fear of sending our children to school, or that turning into the wrong driveway or knocking on the wrong door could result in death by gunfire. Sad. So very sad.
It angers me like nothing else. Right now there is a fiery ball inside and I just want to tell the whole world to fuck off. People who have never lived anywhere else really don't get how it doesn't have to be this way. As a teacher with my own kids in my building, my gun anxiety is tripled and I'm constantly playing out scenarios in my head and thinking how I would get to them. This country is fucked.
terrified bc I don't have any faith in the leadership of this country. How are we supposed to keep our kids safe and teach them to stay safe when they can be shot, randomly, at any moment?
As someone who grew up in rural Maine in a household where everyone but me hunted - I have respect for guns being used as a way to hunt for food. My parents fed us during a paper mill strike using the venison they provided with those guns. Then there is a hard stop. There is no need for automatic weapons. None. They are to murder. We need tighter gun laws where loopholes like gun shows and private sales are tightened up. People will say that if someone wants a gun- they will find a way - well, I'd rather they have to jump thru as many hoops as I do in order to get an abortion in some states. Stop regulating our bodies and start regulating deadly murder weapons like automatic guns.
I want them controlled to the highest degree possible. No one's "hobby" or "special interest" is worth more than any child's life. Throw them all out for all I care if it keeps our children safe and alive.
Frustrated.
I honestly don't know I'm to busy trying to focus on keeping my own circus in line. Lol
I feel like it's out of control and we desperately need change. I am terrified for my children
I cannot fucking wrap my head around why this is even a debate. I cannot fathom what it will take to change some people's minds. I just pray it's not my child's life.