Statistics are generally meaningless, so I’ll try to state this without too many numbers. According to CDC estimates that over 99,000 Americans have died by gunshot since Newtown.The combined US combat deaths in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and all the other conflicts since 1945 are less than the gun deaths in the US since December of 2012.
The reason I don’t have guns in my house is because I am not afraid. I am not weak. I do not tremble in the night. I walk the streets I choose to. I do not worry and fret.
But last night Little Tony slept in our bed between us. Dark lullabies haunted my dreams. This afternoon his mama took him to the movies while I was at work and I was filled with dreadful disquiet until he burst through the door crying, “Papa! I’m home!” Tonight he is sleeping in our bed again.
Now it is the morning. I posted this unfinished last night by mistake.
It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, I have so much to say but I just don’t know how much of it is useful.
The thing is that it is possible to have effective gun control that doesn’t completely disarm everyone; the problem is that it requires us to have an adult conversation. That means that we have to stop letting Ted Nugent and other crazy assholes dominate our discourse. I cannot chalk up the pointless murders of ten people to ‘stuff happens‘. We are a creative and free people who have been to the Goddamned Moon. We can figure this out.
I remain hopeful because I must.
Teahouse of the Furious Buddha 