Pride In The Name Of Love

"This massacre is therefore a further reminder of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon that lets them shoot people in a school, or in a house of worship, or a movie theater, or in a nightclub.  And we have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be. And to actively do nothing is a decision as well." And that's how our president chose to describe the situation in Orlando, Florida on Sunday. Easy enough for someone who was already on the anti-terrorist watch list to get a job as a security guard. An armed security guard who could legally purchase weapons used to kill dozens of his fellow human beings. Legally, especially since he was employed by a firm that  had contracts with the federal government. 

So the right to bear arms continues to win out over the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Going to the movies. Going to a nightclub. Going to church. Going to school. Elementary school. Drawing cartoons. The fact that the refrain, "and all these weapons were purchased legally" keeps coming up in conjunction with tragedies like the one that took place in Orlando suggests that there might be something wrong with the laws. 

That's why we have legislators, judges, and litigators: to fix the laws that don't work. Guns themselves have changed incredibly since the days that the Second Amendment was originally written. It took an average of twenty seconds to load and fire a musket back in the eighteenth century. On full automatic setting, an assault rifle can fire thirteen rounds in a second. Guns have changed. The Second Amendment has not. If anything, the support for that piece of the Constitution has received more reinforcement and support than any other. The "attacks" on the Second Amendment generally come as a response to the attacks that have taken place with the arms in question.

Is this the kind of country we want to be? Is this that "Shining City On A Hill?" Hate or terror? It doesn't really matter because it was both, profoundly for those who were there and for those who died there. I think this country isn't about hate or terror. It's about love.

In the name of love
What more in the name of love
- U2