Kim Hambric Art

Upon finishing up breakfast this morning, I put the bottle of milk back in the refrigerator.  After the door had closed, I gazed, as usual upon all of the photographs (mostly of children) blanketing the appliance.  My usual thought is that I need to clean up the outside of the fridge.  Today's thought was, my God, any of these children could have gone to an event outside of a grocery store and been killed.

That is apparently the risk one takes when traveling outside of the home these days.  You don't have to travel to a war-torn country in Africa or flash your wallet and gold jewelry in high-crime urban areas in South America.  Nope.  All you have to do to be senselessly shot in the United States is be nine years old and in the right place at the wrong time.  Yesterday, it was at a Safeway grocery store in Arizona.  Other children have been shot and killed in their own schools.  Some die in gang fights.  Could even be in their own homes by a member of their own family.

It is unbearable for me to look at those refrigerator photographs and imagine any of those children killed by a gun.  Or by a gunman.  Yes, there are those out there that will defend guns in this country by saying guns don't kill people, people kill people.  How that could possibly be a valid defense of gun ownership I can't even begin to understand.  I shouldn't even be able to visualize any of those children being shot.  There should be no precedent for that.  Yet, there is.  Why don't we all take a break here and Google the words school shooting and see what comes up?

Each and every time a sickening event like this occurs, the only comfort that comes to mind is that maybe this time, this time, something will be done about gun ownership in this country.  Yet, this time, like every other time in the past, gun ownership will be defended successfully.  The NRA gets to pound its chest again and declare victory over the limp-wristed liberals who want to take our constitutional rights away.

What sickens me most, is that Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, John McCain, etc., etc., etc., will make proclamation after proclamation that, while indeed the shooting was a terrible and senseless act, we must do everything we can to retain our freedoms as American citizens.  We must do everything we can to retain our 2nd Amendment rights.  That everything includes giving up the safety of our children to madmen and politicians with guns. 

Now that I think about it, the shooting of a nine-year-old girl (and five other people) is not a senseless act.  It makes a great deal of sense.  Man with gun, pulls trigger several times, people die. 

I don't know about you, but I would gladly give up my right to own a gun (that could shoot 30 people with one clip), in order to prevent the future shooting of just one child, not to mention the hundreds or thousands that will be shot by senseless madmen, homeowners protecting their property, parents cleaning their guns, or other children.

I can't believe there are people in this country that do not believe that would be a worthwhile trade off.