The Aurora Shooting

It has taken me a week to come to a coherent thought process on this unspeakable tragedy. Right after something like this happens, we all feel a visceral, wide range of emotions. While much of this tragedy remains unsolved and the logic behind it impossible to grasp, one thing as become clear: we are not doing enough to stop these horrible events from occurring.

As the tear gas canisters clanged to the floor in my hometown of Aurora, I was in a movie theater by Boston Common watching the end of The Dark Knight Begins. I left the theater completely obsessed with analyzing the last 30 minutes of the movie. Now I barely remember any of it at all. The euphoria from a great movie has been replaced with anger, confusion, and sadness; lots and lots of sadness.

This is dark. The shooter (who I refuse to name simply because that would equate him with being a human being; something he clearly has given up the right to be called) came armed and ready to take on an entire battalion. He dyed his hair orange as an homage to the Joker. Regardless of what comes out of this case, it is obvious that our mental health system failed both the shooter as well as the rest of us.

There will be a large national discussion surrounding this inexplicable nightmare. We need to make sure that it is a productive one. Events like this remind us that we are all in this American experiment together. Life can be complicated and difficult but we all should be able to go out into the world and enjoy ourselves without having to worry about our safety.

This is the fundamental rationale for government. It is a vehicle to execute a social contract that establishes a level of trust amongst the citizens of our nation. In this instance, our government both supported and failed us. The police took just a minute and 30 seconds to arrive on scene and stopped what was a catastrophic situation from becoming even worse. One of the major failures in this tragedy came from—you guessed it—Washington. The Second Amendment is a necessary insurance policy against the worst-case scenario (a tyrannical government that endangers our safety) but it is not a blank check that allows any civilian to have their own army.

Why are weapons designed for war available to every day citizens? What possible practical use could someone have for a drum magazine with room for 100 shells? Why do citizens need anything other than pistols to protect their home and rifles designed for hunting? How come we don’t at least put people who purchase multiple firearms in a short time span through some sort of interview process? How come no one is asking any questions?

The 2^nd Amendment is a vital part of our heritage. We are Americans. WE took this country from the British. WE drafted our own laws. WE built the greatest nation this world has ever known. And it all started with a simple act of defiance in the face of tyranny followed by the inevitable act of self-defense in 1776. This pride manifests itself in our gun culture. This is a good thing but a nation that considers itself THE adults in this world must do the adult thing and make sure that our children cannot be harmed by firearms.

Every American should have the right to purchase a firearm capable of defending their home against an invader. A single pistol has a certain way of slowing down any unarmed aggressors. When you’re pointing a gun at someone how big of a difference does it make if it’s a Magnum or an M-16? You’re holding something capable of taking a life; something the Bible (the gospel to the vast majority of the NRA’s members) argues the Almighty should only be capable of.

Instead, the NRA has completely bought and sold the Republican Party and have established a base in the most radical elements of the GOP. Common sense gun regulation to prevent mass murder is shouted down by bogus conspiracy theories about the federal government making tyrannical infringements on our liberty. Arguing that the general public should not have access to weapons that can murder vast amounts of people in a small amount of time is not about “big government.” It is about loving thy neighbor, and helping to create a safe community for our loved ones.

If all guns were outlawed, the shooter still would have found a way to hurt people. No amount of regulation and oversight can protect us from the deranged actions of a broken individual. But it can lessen the damage. If the shooter had just walked in with a couple of pistols we would still have a national tragedy on our hands; we just would not have as many dead and wounded neighbors, brothers, daughters, husbands, wives, soldiers, sons, and sisters.

We all have a hand in this. The moviegoers are the victims of the Republicans’ blind allegiance to radicals and the Democrats’ tacit approval of their corrupt agenda. They are the victims of the general public’s silence in the face of too many tragedies. Columbine. Virginia Tech. Gabby Giffords. The list goes on. Every minute we spend making it easier for criminals and the mentally ill to obtain weapons of mass destruction is another minute we spend endangering those we love most.

My sister almost went to that theater that night but couldn’t because she didn’t find enough friends to go with her. Odds are, nothing horrible like this will ever happen to you or your loved ones, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. Someone eventually wins the lottery. Our inaction and lack of outrage is doing nothing more than adding candidates to be victims of unspeakable horror. It’s entirely possible to live in a world where guns are legal and are intelligently regulated. Let’s work towards that goal. We owe it to those whose lives have been claimed by our madness.