Obviously we are all devastated by what happened on Friday in Newtown, Connecticut. It’s been 48 hours and I still find myself on the verge of tears. I keep catching myself starting at Will and trying to imagine if all of a sudden he was no longer here. If he was a victim of such senseless evil, how could you ever survive it?
I’m happy that he is too young to be asking why I picked him up early on Friday. When he asked why I started to cry when I grabbed him, I told him that I was just so so happy to see him. And it was exactly the case.
Last night, we went to a Christmas party with a slew of old friends. There were daughters who I’ve known since they were babies home from University; babies who are now little people and newborns on the scene. It was a beautiful way to realize that life goes on after tragedy.
We went to the basement to play with the throng of kids and the first thing I saw was a couch full of boys picking which gun to have their player use in a video game. I’m not being dramatic when I say that I threw up in my mouth. Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not for a minute judging the kids or the parents, all kids that age are into those games but it just hit me like a ton of bricks. This should just not be so nonchalant. They are guns. GUNS that kill people. Guns that slaughter classrooms full of little children. Why do kids need to know the difference between a semi-automatic weapon and a handgun?
We left the room and while I enjoyed some Christmas cheer with my friends, Will was playing upstairs with another group. I went up to check on him and out he came running from a room holding a gun and pretending to shoot it. It took my breath away. One of my friends said, “oh it’s just boys”. I get that that is the case, but does it make it right? I didn’t want to be a pain in the ass or have that discussion with Will right then so I just let him go. But it shook me.
When we left to go home, I told him that while I understood kids play with guns, that I didn’t like it and we will never have play guns in our house. He nodded in his tired haze and snoozed the rest of the way home.
This morning he asked me why I didn’t want him playing with guns. And I remembered a tweet I had read on Saturday morning that stuck with me and I used it to explain why to him. Guns are only here to hurt people or animals. There are NO other reasons to have guns. Later this morning, he said he wanted to go back to the party house for a playdate but he didn’t want to play with the guns. I’m sure he was just trying to make me happy and for that moment it did.
Here is a quote from a father of a Columbine victim. This sums it up. It’s time for change.
I am here today because my son Daniel would want me to be here today. If my son Daniel was not one of the victims, he would be here with me today. Something is wrong in this country when a child can grab a gun, grab a gun so easily, and shoot a bullet into the middle of a child’s face, as my son experienced. Something is wrong. But the time has come to come to understand that a Tech-9 semi-automatic -bullet weapon like that, that killed my son, is not used to kill deer. It has no useful purpose. It is time to address this problem.
Beautiful post Sarah on such a painful story.
Someone on Twitter had said that if people in the US were dying because bridges were collapsing due to being built badly, they’d have addressed that problem immediately. Yet thousands die there annually through senseless gun violence and not much has changed.
You’re so right. Guns only exist to kill people or animals. Yet Americans consider it their constitutional right to bear arms. It is part of their culture and there are consequences to this. The NRA is a very powerful lobby group and no one there can seem to agree on what “gun control” really means.
I agree, something needs to change. I just hope that whatever it is, it actually happens. And that it will be enough.
this is kind of goes to tracey’s post…how she just let people know in small ways that they are present and acknowledged can make a day for someone.
sure, being able to just purchase a semi-automatic just to have is ridiculous…should not be allowed. but i wonder that if the person who did this had one person who smiled and not just left him alone cuz he was a little quiet and weird looking he would feel less invisible and less unwanted.
while i think that the video games of today are way too violent and desensitizing, i think that the real problem here is that the people who are playing them are alone…literally! go out and talk to people face to face! we have become so isolated even though we claim to be more connected than ever.
i don’t like the idea of playing guns either, but then i look back and we were big on cops and robbers when i grew up. but i think that back then, it was just fantasy and we all played with real people. i find it’s very different today.
i don’t know…i’m just rambling cuz i think we’re all just trying to find answers to something that has no answers. just smile and someone today and say hello.
The news of that shooting literally took my breathe away. I found out at school and for the remainder of the day I tried to play out situations in my head and what I would if that happened at my school- how would I protect the children in my class. What would I do, how would I react? The news had me flying home to my babies and hug them so tight. It has also caused my brain to spin since I heard about it.
I, personally, feel that a very large part of the problem is easy access to firearms. However, I also feel it is related to a whole host of other factors- early exposure to aggression and violence, millions and millions (if not billions) of dollars grossed yearly on extremely violent video games/ music/ movies, the ever shrinking access to psychological/ social work/ behavioural resources in the school system for children and their families would need it, the inability to access medical care/ treatment/ medication for people who suffer from various mental and health disorders, the notion that ” boys will be boys”, the growing social isolation children and parents can feel as they try to meet the demands of life….. none of these factors in isolation of each other would necessarily cause this terrible, horrific tragedy but you add easy access to firearms and it can create something unimaginably heartbreaking.
We need to hold each other tight, remember the children and teachers and the principal who lost their lives.
I feel so sad.
It is all just so awful… I still haven’t watched any media footage – I cracked the newspaper open yesterday, but I read with my hands over my eyes… horror story. It all makes me feel so sick. 🙁