TRAGEDY IN PENNSYLVANIA

The death of a child pierces our hearts, and leaves us turning our face toward the heavens and shouting, "Why?" What happened in Georgetown, Pennslyvania was not God's will. Five innocent girls lost their lives in a senseless act of violence. The saddest part is the Amish community is well aware of the evils of contemporary society. That's why they live the way they do, trying to build a wall between themselves and the outside world.

There is a way to stop the bloodshed, or at least a large portion of it. We must get rid of the guns. I can already feel the NRA gearing up. Come and get it. Ban guns and the girls in Pennslyvania would still be alive, instead of being lowered into their graves.

I spent fourteen years in law enforcement. One of my friends was shot and killed in the line of duty. The monster who killed him fired over the head of his two-year-old son. Put a gun into someone's hands and the gun takes over. Why? This question does have an answer. A gun is a weapon of death. All you have to do is sqeeze your finger on the trigger and it kills. Outside of killing or injuring, it has no other useful purpose. People say we must be armed because the criminals are armed. I'm not even certain law enforcement officers need to be armed. As to the hunters, they aren't hunting for food. They're killing animals for sport. Make owning or possessing a firearm a crime punishable by life in prison, and eventually we'll live in a much safer society. Sure it will take time. And yes, it will cost enormous sums of money. These are the same excuses we've been giving in regards to global warming. Some scientists believe we've gone so far now that there's no solution. If you don't want to bury your child with a bullethole in their body, get rid of the guns.

Another situation we've allowed to snowball is in the area of mental health. I went out for my run today and saw a man trying to attach a set of blinds to the outside of my gate. He looked completely normal. He was clean and dressed neatly. I thought it was some kind of advertisement for mini blinds, so I stopped and asked him. The person turned and began to verbally attack me. He said he wasn't attaching the blinds to the fence, and for me to go away and mind my own business. I told him I had only stopped to see what he was doing because I lived there. "I'm not impressed that you live in there," he shouted. I knew instantly that he could explode in a violent rage, so I turned my back and walked away. Who will his victim be when the bent up fury I saw today reaches the point where he can no longer contain it? What if he manages to get his hands on a firearm? If he'd been armed today, I would have been in great danger.

Since I originally wrote this, I heard that someone had suggested arming teachers. What really amazed me was that this wasn't a new suggestion, that important people had actually been discussing it for some time. A teacher isn't a cop. Are they going to make them go to the pistol range on a regular basis? Arm teachers and the next thing you'll hear is a teacher panicked and shot an innocent person, or that a kid broke into their desk one day, found their gun and shot everyone in the classroom. The point is to keep guns away from kids, isn't it? Even seasoned law enforcement officers made terrible mistakes and shoot innocent people. Firing a gun is a blink of an eye decision. How could anyone possibly believe that arming teachers is a good idea?

Mentally ill people are everywhere. We don't want to pay to treat them anymore, so we toss them out on the street. If you become a patient in a private psychiatric facility, I guarantee you won't be released until your insurance and money runs out. Then, like magic, you'll be cured. Insurance companies are paying to treat people with minor problems, while the seriously mentally ill are left untreated. They pay for a substance abuser to detox, but refuse to cover the cost of a rehabilitation program. Without rehab, the person will use again.

The media says the man who went on the shooting rampage inside the Amish school intended to molest the girls. The gun took over, don't you see? In the hands of an irrational mind, this evil weapon makes the decisions. It even made the decision to kill the man holding it. Remember that when you're thinking of buying a gun. Remember that if you already have a gun in your home. Ask yourself whose hands will that gun end up in? Your husband's, your son's, your grandchild's, a burglar, a maniac? Gun control doesn't work because criminals don't buy guns. They steal them from ordinary people like you.