As a grandfather I tend to see some things in a different light than perhaps I did many years ago. As adults, we see the world through unfiltered eyes. The harsh reality of the world we live in is laid out before our eyes daily. We see not only the blessed events and happy times but the pain inflicted on others by events beyond our control. Sadly, there are times when these events affect the children of our lives. Such are the circumstances that happened in Newtown, CT.
We live in a complex world and too often, myself included, we tend to think we can make problems go away with simple solutions. I was part of a long discussion with other authors yesterday after the shootings in Newtown. The thoughts were wide and varied and showed me that we all see things differently based on our own circumstances. Several voices came from outside our world; by that I mean outside the US. Authors from the UK and one ex-patriot living in Mexico gave the rest of us a view from the outside.
It's simple to chant the slogan to ban all guns or put schools in a fortress. But those same actions come with their own set of problems. We live in what was described to me as the most heavily armed country in the world outside of a war zone. If that is true, it is truly sad for us all. Citizens owning guns should not be the norm. It should not be a right but a privilege to own a gun, the second amendment be damned. Any fool can get a weapon virtually without a permit or training but one must carry a license at all times to operate a motor vehicle and for identification.
We live in a complex world and, unfortunately banning guns won't solve the problems we face as they are woven into the fabric of our society, interlocked and intertwined with a host of other issues. All we can do is adapt and move forward and punish those who commit these crimes and pray for the victims and their families.
Ramblings of a 60 Year Old Man - My thoughts on just about anything, in no particular order; Robert Thomas - author.
The problem is that we often cannot punish the perpetrators because they take their own lives as part of these atrocities. Some may say good riddance, however I disagree. Without a suspect to punish, I feel these crimes fade quickly from our collective minds. There is no trial to report on, no sentence to carry out and therefore no continuing news to report. So we move on to the next big story. I hope this time there are some significant changes in our society to prevent this from happening again, but have little faith in our leaders who have done so little of late.
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