My heart hurts; my country is descending into madness with this idea that it’s our “right” to own guns. Another shooting, and yet again, we will do nothing to rectify the issue. Owning guns and having access to guns doesn’t make you safer; it makes you more unsafe. And yet, my countrymen will continue to be enraged when the right-thinking people of my country ask them to hand in their guns. Why do you need a gun? Why do you fight for the right to bear arms? The amendment that you fight so hard to keep was written before automatics, before speed loaders, and it was written when we were fighting an army that had the same weapons as we did. While I will agree we needed the ability to protect our infantile country when that second amendment was written, it no longer applies to where we have come. Having easy access to guns doesn’t make us safer; it adds to the already alarmingly rising rate of terrorism that is happening in America.
My stand on this is this: we don’t need guns to be safe; we need conversation. The more we rely on a weapon to protect us, the more unsafe we are. If we continue to rely on weapons to “protect” us, the more times the weapons we rely on will be used against us.
How many more lives will we need to sacrifice to the greed, the insanity, and the inability to grow a spine against the people who own our country and tell us what to think will it take before we stand up and let common sense rule? Of course, that’s a rhetorical question; my countrymen will not allow their “right to bear arms” taken away from themselves anytime soon, which means I can’t go back to my country anytime soon.
The right to bear arms was an idea that was not current with the times; in that mind, I’m desperate to no longer live in my country. There’s no reason for me to go back; it’s no longer safe for me and the ones I love to live in the country I call my home. Too many people who shouldn’t own guns do, and I, for one, am through reading about deaths from “accidents” or people who “went crazy.” My country is no longer the one I grew up with, and frankly, I’m ashamed to be called an American. Americans, to me, are the great melting pot of humanity, the people who are from all over the planet who come to a land with the hopes of a better life. I still hold those ideals, but I no longer think my country is the place where those ideals are held to the highest. When I find that place where people respect life over all other things, I’ll let you know. Until then, I will no longer call the USA home.
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