Every time I hear another politician or gun lobbyist or the NRA suggest that we make our schools into armed camps instead of even discussing reasonable gun regulations I want to scream. Are we really a nation so enamored of guns and violence that we would rather imprison our children for eight hours a day in what would essentially be an armed fortress with locked doors and armed guards rather than admit at assault rifles are meant for war, not hunting, not protection.
School is supposed to be a place where you are safe and can have the good times that quickly end when adulthood rears its ugly head. When I was in high school, I had a blast with both academic studies (yes, I was a nerd then too) and after hours activities that introduced me to everything from laying out a yearbook or newspaper to pretending to actually be able to speak French in French Club. How are our children supposed to feel that sense of freedom to explore interests and learn where their future might lead when they have to get frisked to even get into school?
This is school we are talking about making into an armed camp rather than simply creating a society – you know, like the ones they have in places like Canada, Australia, England, Japan – in which children can attend school without fear, assault weapons are recognized as something that belong only in war, not in your home, and background checks that have some teeth and no exemptions for gun shows or online purchases.
How the hell hard can that be? And honestly, how does that interfere with the Second Amendment’s guarantee that a “well regulated militia” allows private gun ownership. Because quite frankly, I’m still waiting for that well regulated militia to show up.
And finally, just to get all of this rant out before it eats me up, Republicans – stop pretending that this is not a gun issue. It is. It is a gun issue. It’s an issue of whether the creators of Second Amendment ever imagined that an assault rifle or a bump stock would come into existence. I’m betting if they did, they would have couched the Second Amendment in very different language.
And again, where the hell is that well regulated militia that the Second Amendment call for?