When enough is enough

Its 3pm - I am somewhere at work. I look at the TVs screen and see Breaking News - well everything nowadays is breaking news. 17 people shot and others wounded in high school in Florida. Another  mass shooting.Another day at the factory. The cycle begins - anti-gun rallies, mental health rallies, prayer vigils, and as usual crickets from the NRA. The White House releases a statement, " Now is not the time to discuss gun reform - we need to let the families heal." Wait a minute it was not the time either when 20 children between the ages of 5 and 10 were shot in Newtown, CT. But that was 5years ago. And still we wait to have the discussion.Then two days after the dust settles - business as usual. Counselling will be provided for students and their families at the school. The president will visit with the wounded at the hospital. Then we go back and wait. Wait for the next massacre and we start over.
Here is the thing. America has and continues to thrive on a NIBY culture. Not In My Back Yard.As long as those refugees are nowhere near me - c'est la vie - let me write the monthly giving check and move on. As long as that kid of color was not shot in my neighborhood - it was some riff raff city in SouthSide Chicago - does not happen around here. After all I drop my kids at school pick them up, heck they wear helmets and knee pads when they ride their bikes in our little gated community. But guess what ; that is exactly what those parents of the kids and teens who have been killed since Columbine thought they were doing right. Until they received the call to head over to the school IMMEDIATELY there has been a shooting. The worst call you can receive as a parent is from the police with as little information as "we cant give you any information over the phone you need to head over."
I have no idea when enough will be enough. Just this past year, women came out of the shadows and said time is up on sexual misconduct. You would think the killing of 6  and 7 year olds would be case enough to call bluff on mental illness as a copout for mass shootings. Again NIBY. Just last year, laws were rolled back that prohibited people with a mental health condition from purchasing a gun. You can fact check me here mental health gun law. Does this even make sense? Like you want to make it easier for someone with a mental health condition to purchase a gun.Tell me NRA campaign funding is not written all over this. I get it I get it. The 2nd Amendment yes yes right to bear arms and all that. I get it. The only thing that can stop a bad man with a gun is a good man with a gun - copy that. You must keep the family safe - I get that too. But what I do not get is why obtaining a gun license in this country - is almost as easy as obtaining a driving license. Yes I hear you 2nd amendment advocates - one is a right the other is a privilege. Ditto.
I wish rifle / gun owners would get this simple message. No one is trying to take away your guns. All that is being called for is stricter regulation on who can / should have access to them. Think about it - when you apply for a driving license you have to at least pass a drivers test of some kind. If you wear glasses you are required to disclose that and you are made to do some basic vision test. You are also to be of certain age. Its not for your safety its for the safety of others. Maybe its a power thing.I remember 80 year old patients at the nursing home - their last thing to give up - after putting up a fight was their driving license. This was of course after they rammed into cars in parking lots after thinking they were in drive and yet they were in reverse. Its not for your safety - its for the safety of others.

While yes this may be a "gun problem" we also need to acknowledge the fact that in the grand scheme of things this is also a "decayed society problem." Did you know that the US is one of THREE countries in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave. I had actually thought there were five countries but nope just three...She is competing for the bottom of the pack with two little countries - Papua New Guinea and Lesotho. Countries the size of a couple of states combined.And ask me why this is a problem. That mother child bonding in the early stages of life is so important. We flip the script and then consider the stay at home mum scenario. Because living standards have changed - gone are the days when one income was enough to guarantee you that picket fence.Now you have a father having to work for two paychecks coming home so exhausted finding disgruntled technology-addicted-teenagers.

 So I guess cue in mental illness. Everyone can agree we are raising a generation of over anxious, over stimulated borderline unhappy generation. Technology - which is here to stay has also not helped the situation.
So whats the solution - oh wait the president today suggested arm the teachers..Like ADD more guns to the school to "protect" the kids..Teachers are up in arms - no pun- and I do not blame them. I mean literally the sherriff assigned to the school sat outside hunched behind his car for FOUR whole minutes as the shooting unfolded. He literally froze. Like four minutes in a shoot out is like eternity. He has since resigned.So much for " the only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun correct?" So guess what if a TRAINED sherriff waited and strategized (and maybe chickened out) tell me about a first grade teacher. Personally it is insulting for the president to offer such a suggestion - and in addition to dangle a carrot like oh we will add bonuses for whichever teacher goes for arms training. Like seriously teachers are in my opinion the lowest paid civil servants and yet they may be spending more time with our kids than we are.
I can ramble on and on but the bottom line is America's chicken have come home to roost. Its been a week since the shooting. This is school vacation week. I think of the parents who lost their children. Maybe they had planned a mini getaway or maybe there was a senior who had planned to go prom dress hunting with her mum this weekend. But now all that remains is their empty teenagers room just the way they left it that morning - maybe an unmade bed , a slice of pizza on the side from the previous night. Pictures on the wall of  Justin Timberlake. Flags all over the country are still flying at half mast,  outrage and protests continue but the sad reality is as the days unfold slowly the fire will die down as we await the next massacre.