It feels like we should have a civilian version of this so that mass shooting survivors can be recognized publicly. They are selflessly enduring injuries, trauma, and enormous inconvenience so that we may all purchase assault weapons that absolutely no civilian needs.
I really should be straddled on this issue, but I am not. I own a bunch of guns and occasionally go shooting at ranges nearby. I have two pistols, a Rock Island 1903 .30 rifle, a .17HMR rifle, and I inherited two shotguns that I’ve never fired. I’m very careful and my 12 year old has no access to them. I’ve never felt the need for a Kalashnikov or a CAR-15, or any other assault rifle and I don’t get the seemingly phallic attraction people have to them. I was in the National Guard a long time ago so I’ve fired an M-16 and other more serious weapons. Yeah, I get it, they’re powerful. But I get enough of a kick from my old fashioned, bolt action rifle and its little 5 round magazine.
I vacationed with relatives in North Carolina last summer and went shooting with a couple of boobs. It was fun, though I was still fine just plinking away with my Rock Island. One of these guys had a vault full of thousands of dollars of guns……what the bloody bullocks? Going out hunting with a battalion of your closest friends? And all kinds of ammunition, the kind of rounds SEALS use for silent killing. Come the heck on! Is it just a little more satisfying blowing away Bambi with silent savagery? I just don’t get it.
What really got me, though, was the interaction I had with an old friend from the Guard. I’ll call him Zivo. He and I were in the same platoon and sometimes shared rides to and from drill. Sometimes we hung out. After my ETS date we lost track of each other until recently, at which time we began a mostly texting relationship. Then the attack on the Temple in Pittsburgh came and I remember texting him about it. I texted that it appeared to me, as it does now, that we are in the beginning of what must be the American fourth Civil War.
Although I am the least religious person out there, it was personal to me that a Jewish temple was attacked and that 11 died there. Attacked specifically because they were Hebes going to shul. Zivo’s reaction: “Now they’re going to use this as a reason to put more limits on firearms.” Seriously? A bunch of innocent people get killed because of hateful bigotry, and the concern is why he can’t have a silencer or an extra large magazine?! Nazis killing Jews in my own country, where my wife lives, where my daughter walks around ?
No, Zivo, we’re out of the Guard. Neither of us, nor anyone else needs a high-powered assault rifle. Ban them.
We haven’t texted since.
Bittersweet Abattoir 