Still not funny

I'm not going to pretend I'm not still angry and broken hearted.  I'm going to try and explain myself a little better though.   I was in high school when the Columbine shooting happened.  I remember being a little scared, though, as is my fashion, mostly oblivious, and horrified at what had occurred.  I also remember being upset at the nonsensical banning of trench coats and solid black clothing.  We talked about assault weapons, and gun control, and who was to blame.

I don't remember coming to a decent conclusion on that end.   I do remember when some asshat whose name I do not remember decided to tie a fake pipe bomb to the third floor men's (Teachers) bathroom wall.   The fire alarm went off and we were all told to go outside to the track field.  I didn't take my car keys or  my purse, because usually, it didn't matter. We were back inside in five minutes.  We got out there and instead of our usual stand around and pretend to take roll they tried to get us to line up alphabetically.  That's when I knew something was wrong.  We all kind of meandered around compliantly until some said it:  This is a bomb threat.  Then we realized that if it was more than a bomb threat, if there was a person with guns involved, Butch Lingenfelter had just put the entire student body in a slaughter pen.   The track field was fenced, you see, is fenced, and the annex building would, frankly, make an excellent place to shoot from.   Some boys tried jumping the fence, realizing this, and the more cynical among us starting talking about how we were going to beat the person who had done this (if it was a joke) to a bloody pulp.    Eventually, the principal saw what the rest of us saw and just let us all go home.   We couldn't go back into the building yet, it hadn't been cleared, so Brady gave me a ride back to the house.

It took me about fifteen minutes to wake my mother up and convince her of what had actually happened.    She thought I was messing with her until she turned on the radio.  

A friend of mine told me later that she got sent home from school the next day because she was wearing black when she came in.  She had just attended a funeral, even showed the principal the funeral program, but they still sent her home to change.   It turned out the boy who did it was playing a rather horrible joke, it was a fake pipe bomb, and he was not a goth or a member of any mafia or a wearer of trench coats.  He was a jock. 

I wasn't all that surprised.  I was really pissed though, because it just wasn't funny.  It still isn't funny.   It's been 13 years and I still want to slap him for it.   So let me say about all these stupid memes about how guns don't kill people, and people kill people and talking about God help us they're going to take our guns?  It's not funny.  It wasn't funny before this happened, and it's not funny now.

There's nothing about owning a gun that makes you 'free'.  It's a huge responsibility.  No, that pistol doesn't shoot itself, but it makes murder a whole lot easier.   Tim McVeigh did take down a building with fertilizer.  Yes, he did.  It's called a bomb.  It's called chemistry.  It is not called a mass shooting which is what we are talking about.  McVeigh, by the way, was a bitter gulf war vet gun nut with serious mental issues as well.   It's really sad that he ended up that way, and it's even sadder that he bombed that building and killed all those people.   So tell me how having a stockpile of weapons makes you 'free'?   If someone steals them and kills someone, the cops look at you.   If you have a child, they have to be both trained about what to do and not do with them AND you have to keep them out of sight and out of mind so the kid doesn't hurt themselves.   If someone walks into a place to rob it and they notice you're packing before you notice them, they shoot you first.   If you really think it's going to help you defend yourself from the government, you are a stupid stupid person and should not own a gun anyway. 

So why can't we talk about enacting sane gun laws?   I don't watch tv news, but I'm guessing some of those memes are created in the propaganda machine that is fox news and I'm taking a wilder guess that they're telling everyone that the liberals are out to steal your guns.    Well, folks, we're all adults here.  We need to have an adult conversation about this.  No sarcasm, no snark, no dumb tactless jokes on the internet.  

It isn't funny.  It never has been.