Friday, December 21, 2012

Fictional Account

Today is Fiction Friday, but I don't plan to write a story.  The account will be completely fictional, but thought provoking.

Before I begin, please let me make one thing very clear.  I believe in the second amendment which gives citizens the right to carry arms.  My husband has owned guns since before we married.  My children were raised to respect guns and gun safety.  I think I am the only one in the family who doesn't hold a Concealed Handgun License.     I believe in the right to own a gun.  I do not believe in the right to carry guns with the ability to mow down a group of people in less than five seconds.

One week ago Adam Lanza walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School with a 22-caliber Bushmaster M4 carbine gun and shot, killing 20 students and 6 others.  Tuesday I heard a news reporter say that since that date the sale of those guns has risen to a record level.  When I heard that I wondered how that encounter looked like?   Here is my fictional account.

A man walks into a gun shop.
Shop Owner:  May I help you?
John Q. Public: I want one of them 26-caliber Bushwacker R7 carbine guns.
Shop Owner:  I'm sorry, sir.  I am not familiar with that gun.  Is it possibly called something else.
John Q. Public:  Well it might be.  Maybe it's a 28-caliber.
Shop Owner:  There is no such gun sir.
John Q. Public:  Yeah there is.  You know.  It's one of them KK guns.
Shop Owner:  KK guns?
John Q. Public:  Yeah.  A kindergarten killer gun.
Shop Owner:  I have never heard it called that.
John Q. Public:  Well that's what Adam Lanza did with it.  Shouldn't it be called that?
Shop Owner:  I really don't think that is a very good name for it, but I do have a gun that is the same make and model as the one he used.  Would you like to see one?
John Q. Public:  Oh no.  If you'll just wrap it up, I'll take it home and look at it.

What kind of a person goes out immediately after such a tragedy and buys the same weapon???  What kind of a person sells a weapon like that after the killing?  Have we become so business minded that we have no morals or standards?  Has money become so important to us that we are will to sacrifice the lives of small children?


2 comments:

Kevin Mark Smith said...

As a fellow John 3:16 author, I respect you, but I find your article wrongheaded. Simply stated, I take greater offense at politicians who will use this tragedy to outlaw guns. U.S. v. Miller (1939) as well as the founders' original intent made it clear that the second amendment guarantees us the right to own military style weapons for the primary purpose of defending ourselves from despotic government, not burglars, robbers,or even murderers. After all, the patriots weren't fighting Indians, they were fighting the King. Hence, since we are on the precipice of yet another so-called assault weapons ban, I will soon be lining up at my local weapons retailer to buy a couple assault weapons. The greatest threat to America is a citizenry woefully uninformed of their unalienable rights. As Ben Franklin put it, "Those willing to sacrifice freedom for security deserve neither."

Unknown said...

Thank you for your comments. I appreciate them and respect your right to express yourself. There was a time I would have agreed with you. However, after several years as a public school administrator, I learned that we live in a society far different from the one who wrote our constitution. I worked with many parents who had middle school thinking skills. More than once I commented that the elementary student we were working with was the smartest one in the family. If you want to talk about responsibility. It was a scarce commodity. Do I trust the government?? Absolutely not. Am I afraid of what they will do? Absolutely. But I taught Emotionally Disturbed students and have seen how they think--they can do anything to you, but you have to respect them and anything they don't like is disrespect. I fear that kind of thinking far more than being attacked in my home by the government. Your statement 'the greatest threat to America is a citizenry woefully uninformed of their unalienable rights' is true. However, I would say 'the greatest threat to America is a citizenry woefully apathetic'.
I will say again, I respect your opinion and would have agreed with you until I worked in the public and discovered that not everyone is stable, rational, or responsible.