While Argument Rages, Innocents Die

I have written several times about school shootings in the past. If there is a more heinous crime in today’s world, I do not know what it is – and that’s saying something.

What I fail to understand is the outcry every time for more gun control laws.

STOP!

Before you take me behind the woodshed for being another gun-rights activist, please understand I am not.

I haven’t fired a gun in decades. I am not a member of the NRA. My point is not about how America will be a better place with guns . . . or without. I do have some views on that, but could we save that argument for another day so we don’t confuse the issue?

The issue is what’s wrong with our society?

The issue is how far we have fallen from the nation that didn’t see the slaughter of innocent children as often as we do today.

The issue is stronger prison sentences, even death penalties.

The issue is a lack of discipline in the home – and how can you blame mom and dad for not spanking their kids when they fear some sort of consequences from some governmental alphabet agency somewhere.

The issue is the degradation of our society.

Here’s a question for you: If we eliminate guns, will that eliminate the killing of children? I think not. Sick people are sick people. If it’s not a gun it’ll be something else.

Disagree? Then shouldn’t we be doing away with cars to stop drunk driving and prevent morons from running people over on purpose? Do you hear anyone suggesting that?

For God’s sake, we keep talking about the method and not the reason behind it.

Truth to tell, there are plenty of answers, but we don’t seem to have the will, or perhaps the stomach, to implement them. The government could indeed help the family unit get stronger. How? Change taxes, change a lot of things so that every household doesn’t have to have two incomes. Maybe give tax credits for one parent being a full-time homemaker.

And I’m sick of politicians telling us they can’t do something. They seem to have found ways to hold office for decades and increase their personal wealth at the same time. They have helped create tax laws that take up volumes and are so complicated not even they understand them. If those hired hands wanted to give the family a true tax break, they could figure it out.

What else?

Bring the churches back into the fold. Stop outlawing the mention of God in our schools.

Speaking of schools, give teachers the authority to discipline without fear of being sued.

Lastly, change the damn laws. If someone wants to do something wrong, make the penalty a true deterrent.

Look, I have never claimed to be the smartest guy in the room. But there are some things painfully obvious here.

We (and I don’t care if you have been part of the following or not – last I looked “we” are still all Americans and supposedly on the same team) have been calling for the defunding of police for a few years now. We have become so soft as a nation that you can’t tell someone they’re wrong or disagree without the risk of sending them into counseling. We have lowered standards left and right to the point where people don’t have to work hard to achieve anything anymore. And when they fall short, the government bails them out.

We have turned into a nation foolishly chasing utopia. We let the exceptions guide us while leaving the majority out of consideration. If there is one act of police brutality, mayors in metropolitan cities from one coast to another call for defunding the police. If one gay person is discriminated against, there’s a national outcry on the 6 o’clock news.

If we’re all being honest, we can agree that in a perfect world there would be no such thing as police brutality, racism and bias. In a perfect world, I would weigh 225 and have 5 percent body fat. In a perfect world, I’d be laying on a beach and you’d be reading someone else’s work right now. But you know what?

It. Ain’t. A. Perfect. World.

Idiots will be idiots. Bigots will be bigots. Perhaps we can influence a few to grow in their humanity, but we’ll never change them all.

We all know that, yet we all keep going down the same path of letting the exception rule the day.

Let’s get back to the current argument. The left screams to eliminate guns – yet anybody want to bet what security guards for the Hollywood elite carry under their blazer? Conservatives scream that the right to bear arms can’t even be discussed or the whole country will fall apart.

Do any of them look for common ground? Do any of them acknowledge that both sides have some valid points? Are any of them looking for real answers, or just for their side to win? Do any of them stop to consider that while they spend all their time making political statements and grandstanding more kids have died?

ENOUGH!

A friend sent me an e-mail the other day with a simple message: We are no longer accepting things we cannot change. It is now time to change the things we cannot accept.

It’s well past time. But what are we going to do about it?

-Two cents, which is about how much Timmons said his columns are worth, appears periodically on Wednesdays in The Paper. Timmons is the publisher of The Paper and can be contacted at [email protected].