Gun control, I get it. It's a sensitive subject just not as sensitive as getting you brains blown out of your head while you lay face down on the pavement. I don't know if I'm shocked anymore or if I've become accustomed to the news of another shooting in the US.
Over the weekend Australian news lit up with another mass shooting and innocent lives lost. I opened up Hive and Leo to see if any of my American friends had written about it. But the block chain was silent.
I recall a recent post by 
See politics is an odd beast it can inspire, empower and make people believe in alot of things, even if things aren't true. It's why propaganda has always been used in wars, politics and campaigns.
I learned early on in my political career that if you want to know the truth, read what someone else is writing about you. It's hard to have an outside view on a topic when your in the centre of it.
Above is an image of mass shootings from the US not over a period of time but just this year, the article link further breaks down the ages, children and youth also. It's quite sad really and I dont know how anyone can't be touched after reading it.
12,654 people have lost their lives in a mass shooting since January, that only takes into account where 4 or more people had been shot. The number would be far greater if it included individual deaths.
Around 410 whom died were under the age of 17, probably on their way to school, the shops, a friends house. Someone's son, someone's daughter. Children with their whole lives ahead of them. Gone. I don't know what I'd be like if I lost my children to such a pointless debate.
I get it, I do. Constitutional rights inshrined in law. Growing up in school in Australia we learned of past injustices where US forces were dispatched on their own citizens, where bombs were dropped on neighbourhoods. Even most recently the protests erupting in the US are fighting to watch. US police opening fire on citizens. I'd be on the front lines if it happened here, hold a good service for me, I probably wouldn't return alive.
But the majority of deaths aren't at the hands of civil war but civilians, fed up, broken, distute and in despair. Mental Health supports can not prevent anyone from getting a gun and opening fire on another church, another school another shopping mall.
The adage of if I can carry then we are safe is not correct, most people perceive they can open fire on a would be mass shooter but how many can, have and would? People freeze up and hide. Also another gun or 10 in the area doesn't make things safer it makes it more dangerous as more innocent people get caught in the cross fire.
Gun laws don't mean no guns, I think that's where alot of the debate gets side railed. In Australia we have strict gun laws, no mass shootings since they were implemented and we have a safer country. Yes criminals get guns but they don't go on rampages killing random people. They're also not easy to come by and a reduction in fire arms has built a safer nation.
You can still own fire arms within limits, reason and you need to be a member of a gun club for certain fire arms. I'm an avid shooter, spent alot of time on farms and regional areas as a kid, learned to shoot at a young age.
But I believe gun lobby groups in the US have blind sided American's and with all things open and transparent you can see their political campaigns and their funding to which politicians. Most recently Australian politicians too met with US gun lobby groups seeking funding for political campaigns with the deal of pushing the legalisation of guns. Australia reacted by almost decimating that political party. People perceived it was because the political party held racist views, but it wasn't. It was an alt right group growing and surging in the polls. Until it made the decision to seek political funding from US gun lobby groups, got caught and got destroyed at the next election.
How many more children must die? How many more innocent people out for a coffee who have rushed out the door to get the night's dinner to prepare for their families must not return before laws are changed?
Imagine this, you wake to head off to work. You kiss your daughter good morning as she prepares to leave for school and you for work. You get to work and your phone rings, it's your partner. They're in tears, you don't know what's happened but you've made that your daughter has been shot. She's 12 and caught the school bus as she has everyday. Nothing different.
You're stuck in traffic trying to return home, it's OK. She's been shot, people get shot all the time and survive. All she'll need is some stitches and she'll be home and back to school in no time.
2 hours goes by as your anxiety is kicking in, heart racing you want to get through the traffic but your stuck.
As you approach there are emergency vehicles everywhere, your partner is curled up in a ball crying, your other child? Where's your other child? Who has them? You rush over to where the shooting was. You're stopped. It's an active crime scene, you call out to your daughter, she can't hear you, you want her to come over so she's safe.
You scream more and more, louder and louder, two police walk over to you. They ask you to calm down. You ask for your daughter is she OK? They don't respond.
Another hours goes by, what's happening, you're screaming but she's not coming over.
You're asked to attend with two police officers to identify the body, what body? Where's my daughter?
Over on the pavement, next to the school bus are white sheets, your heart begins to sink. No, no, no, get up, get up, I'm here, it's OK, come home.
One of the sheets is drawn back, there she is. You call to her. Get up! Get up! But she can't hear you. It's a dream, I went to work I'll come home she will be there.
You begin to crumble, knees weak as you tremble, you rush over but slammed back by two police officers who say it's an active crime scene. You don't care, you want to shake her so she wakes up. You can't touch her. Why? How? It's just school.
Across is a person you can barely make out, that's the shooter you're angry, your weak, you can't do anything, you want to strangle them but can't.
It's OK, my daughter will go to the hospital and she will get better. Your told to leave and you cry with your partner, Where's your other child?
You go home, looking for your other child. Your partner says "they too were on the bus". You break down. Hours feel like days, weeks, months. Eternity goes by and it's only been a day.
The pitter patter, the temper tantrums silent, your home void. You're waiting for them to come down the stairs but don't.
You finally get a call, both your children are dead, sorry for your loss.