Guns and America and Newtown

America is driven by fear. 

We are scared of what our neighbors might do.  We are scared of what terrorists might do.  And we are even fearful of what our own government might do.  Logic and objective reasoning goes right out the window.  We feed our fears and it, in turn, consumes us.  This is not a new thing however.  There are still plenty of bomb shelters built in the 50s/60s out there.  Before that we had Communists hiding in our closets.  The South is still smarting over the War of Northern Aggression (seriously.)

And so you have a group of well intentioned women having tea and discussing why it's important to have a few UNREGISTERED guns - just in case the government tries to take them away from us.

The other issue with America is we are no longer capable of having a discussion.   Compromise is not a tenable position.  You are either for or against (pick an issue) and any attempt at middle ground is waffling, at best.  At worst you are accused of actually siding with the opposition and your talking points are dismissed.  The causes for this are myriad but, I think, are not in a small part rooted in our fears.

So you have a Newtown tragedy and it seems obvious to everyone outside America that we should address this head on.  It's easy.  We need to deal with mental issues in this country - provide support and change the system so folks like Adam and his mother can get the help they need.  Perhaps that might have prevented Adam from arming himself that day.  We need to address automatic and semi automatic weapons - as well as magazine size - so that if there is crazed gunman out there again he at least has to pause and reload.  Perhaps that might have minimized the damage Adam caused.  And we should respectfully discuss the quantity and security of guns.  Perhaps if Adam's mother had better secured her firearms this might not have happened.

You will see some media outlets try and bring these issues to light.  Already there are a few politicians (even some with the GOP) that are talking gun control.  It's going to get real ugly though.  Why?  Because a large percentage of Americans will see this as a trampling of their 2nd amendment 'rights' and the next step in total government control - furthering Obama's socialist agenda while negating our ability to defend ourselves against criminals and our own government.

It's absolute lunacy but there it is.