As a few of you know, I lost somebody in my family to gun violence. I guess you all know that now.
I don’t let his death (at age 26) consume me. I don’t commemorate the anniversary. I am way past the guilt phase; there is absolutely, nothing that I could have differently in his lifetime that would have changed the outcome. Moreover, I go to great lengths to not let his death color my judgement on topics such as the capital punishment, gun rights, etc.
However, in this era, there are periodic reminders of that event, of that unnecessary waste of a young life, and it’s difficult not to go back to that day. The reminders aren’t limited to actual news events, either. It’s more the followup that occurs on the social-media channels such as Facebook.
That all being said, I think the shrill cries of ”we need more guns” and ”we need to ban all guns now” are equally ludicrous. Honestly, my opinions are not that extreme one way or the other, and think that many of conclusions on the topic are the result of a gross oversimplification of reality.
However what is really, really peculiar to me is that some (not all) of the people who brag about having Jesus on their speed-dial are the first ones to respond to a headline-grabbing shooting with status updates bragging about how many rounds-per-second their piece can fire. Or they share memes, adorned with dodgy statistics, hackneyed phrases, and often with fake quotes.
Whether the claims in the post or shared memes are right or wrong is inconsequential. My personal opinion is that it’s pretty fucking insensitive to post these publicly after mass shootings. Or any other time for that matter.
I don’t need anymore goddamn reminders of that early morning phone call I got a few Augusts ago. I doubt anybody who’s gone through a similar experience is chomping at the bit to see your memes of Ronald McDonald cradling an AR-15, either.
If these memes of gun worship really make you feel better, then consider putting them in your computer’s screen saver or you phone’s photo gallery. I think many of us would prefer you keep your false idols to yourself.
I expect, like with other controversial topics, my opinion will be considered offensive to some and might result a few ”unfriendings” of Facebook, etc. If that is your choice, so be it.
That’s a clear indicator we weren’t friends to begin with.