OOC Blogpost: Thoughts on Sandy Hook

Normally  I use this column to write about in-character e-wrestling stuff, and that’s something I  enjoy doing  lot.  But right now, for just this one entry, I have to go OOC.  Just a lot on my mind, and maybe writing in a column might be the best way to sort all through this.  

By now, everyone knows about the horrible things that happened in Newtown, Connecticut on Friday.  Twenty first-graders are dead, along with six adults who perished trying to protect them.  All at the hands of an insane madman who somehow thought the best way for him to take his own life was to take twenty-seven other people, including his mother, and little children, with him.  

In a tragedy such as this, there’s always three things that happen.  People first are horrified, which is fairly understandable.  A parent’s worst nightmare is to outlive their child- especially when their child is so young.  Twenty parent’s worst nightmares came true Friday.  That’s horrible by any stretch of the imagination.

The second is to ask why.  How the hell could something like this happen?  Police are trying to piece together a motive, and I’m sure we’ll all try to grasp some attempt at wondering why a someone themselves to kill defenseless children.  I don’t know specifics, nor am I going to try and guess any.  The only thing I can say is in a broad term- that evil is alive in the world today.  The person who did this was evil.  Not “mentally-ill”, “not right in the head”, or any other term that gets thrown around when something like this happens.  The creature (not even a man) who did this was evil.  That’s the only explanation I have, and thats the only one that’s needed.

The third instinct we all have is to blame.  Point fingers.  Find something that we can all zero in on and say “IF IT WASN’T FOR THIS, IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED!”.   I do it to.  And after two days of thinking here’s my list of people and institutions who should be blamed for what happened.

1. The monster.

That’s it.  Had it not been for this piece of shit, I wouldn’t be writing this, and, more importantly, there’d be twenty-seven more people alive in the world today.

You’ll notice who’s not on there.  The mother.  Society.  The NRA.  The media.  Video Game companies.  Athiests.  Churches.  Our mental health institutions.  None of them pulled the trigger.  None of them asked, or even wanted this to happen.  One of those is dead because of this.  The others, I promise you, are just as horrified as the rest of us, and sure as hell don’t deserve people screaming in their face “THIS IS YOUR FAULT!”  Because it isn’t.  So if you’re blaming any of the above, do us all a favor and kindly shut the fuck up, because you’re not helping matters one bit.

That’s not to say we shouldn’t take a look at everything, and see what along those lines could have been done better, and could be done better in the future, so that something like this could be prevented- or at least stopped once started.

And there comes the nine-hundred pound elephant in the room.  The gun-control debate flared up a couple weeks ago, when another piece of shit who happened to play football decided to murder his girlfriend, then himself.  It only intensified from there, thanks to another shooting at an Oregon mall.  So it was already on the tips of many tongues when Newtown happened, which means we can expect a massive debate on the issue in the coming weeks, probably overshadowing even all the fiscal cliff posturing that’s going on.

So here’s the first thing I have to say about this.  If your first thought concerning this tragedy was to gun control, whether “BAN GUNS NOW!”  or “OMG, THEY’RE GONNA STEAL OUR GUNS!,” instead of to the victims and their families (many who probably didn’t even know their loved ones lay dead when you started your political diatribe)- shame on you.  There’s time for debate after a tragedy, like, you know, maybe a few days afterwards, NOT WHILE THE DAMN THING IS STILL GOING ON.   Whether or not twenty dead kids validates/invalidates your political position, and exploiting/defending said position should be the LAST thing on your fucking mind at that moment.

Hell, maybe even talking about it now, on the other side of the weekend, may be too soon.  But like I said, maybe writing this all will be good for me, and, like it or not, this is going to spark a debate on the issue.

I’m someone who believes that the US Constitution was written by a bunch of pretty damn smart people.  And the fact of the matter is, when they wrote that document 230 years ago, they did a pretty darn good job with it.  One of the best things they did was adding the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the document, which allowed for all kinds of various freedoms (as well as putting an amendment system into place that enabled us to change the document as needed, such as giving equal rights to minorities, women, and lowering the voting age).   The Constitution got a LOT of things right, far more than it got wrong.  

The second amendment is included in the former.  The right to bear arms has long been proudly touted as a symbol of American freedom.  After all, the whole American Revolution started because British Troops rode out of Boston to confiscate the munitions of a colonial militia.  Our Fathers recognized that barring citizens from owning weapons was a step on the road to tyranny, and they put measures into the law of the land to ensure that right would never bee taken away.   A good thing too, considering guns were needed as both a source of food, and protection.  Even during some of America’s bloodiest non-military moments (i.e. Bleeding Kansas), the rights of citizens to own guns was hardly in jeopardy.  

"Firearms stand next in importance to the constitution itself. They are the American people's liberty teeth and keystone under independence … from the hour the Pilgrims landed to the present day, events, occurences and tendencies prove that to ensure peace security and happiness, the rifle and pistol are equally indispensable … the very atmosphere of firearms anywhere restrains evil interference — they deserve a place of honor with all that's good.” - George Washington

"Those who hammer their guns into plowshares will plow for those who do not."- Thomas Jefferson

"They that give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

Obviously, times have changed.  We no longer live in frontier times, and the weapons we hold have grown steadily more efficient, and, by extention, more dangerous.  But should that truly make the second amendment obsolete?  Should firearms be eliminated, or even restricted, because evil people can use them to slay innocents?  Or is it because of that very reason that it’s even more necessary to have guns than ever?  After all, what is a man who is stripped of his ability to protect himself or his family from someone wishing to harm them?

I personally do not own a gun, but I fully believe anyone who wishes to arm themselves has that right.  Gun control advocates insist that weapons- particularily automatic one- are not needed.  They say that even under times of attack, someone firing back would only add to the chaos and destruction, not help prevent it.  And, more than anything, they use the ever touching “even if just one life is saved, wouldn’t it all be worth it?”

Except how many lives have been saved by citizens with firearms?   http://www.akdart.com/gun3.html (special thanks to fellow FVSports poster DaCat for providing this link). provides several articles and studies (a note that some of the top links are obsolete),  as well as numerous specific cases where a citizen with a firearm stopped a crime in progress.  Guns are, like so many other things in this world, capable for being a tool for good or evil.  Would a gun on the premises in Aurora or Newtown have stopped the shootings, or at least lowered the number of victims?  I don’t know.  I don’t know what it was like in that movie theater or school, and God willing, I never will.  But there are other cases where they DID save innocent lives, and, like we’ve heard, isn’t one life worth it?

But just because gun owners should be allowed to keep their guns, that sure as hell doesn’t mean we oughtn’t take a step back once in a while and examine how we go about it.  But knee jerkily passing a law- any law- is an absolute mistake, and will only hurt responsible, law-abiding gun owners, not the people we truly need to stop.   If we look at this closely, and there IS something we can do to prevent this from happening again, then yes, we should take it.  But- and this is a scary truth of society that will never go away- if someone desires to commit murder badly enough, they will do it, no matter what laws are in place.  After all, “don’t murder anyone” is one of the most basic, essential laws of our society, so if you’re willing to violate that, what law isn’t going to stop you?

That’s not to say that there’s nothing we can do.  Gun ownership is a right, and just as with any other right we have, exercising that right entails some responsibility.  This is something that most conservatives tend to talk about a lot, after all.  If you exercise your “right” to have sex with whoever you want, then you’re responsible for any pregnancy/diseases that are a consequence.  We fully know and advocate that, so for a second, let’s flip it around on us.

Gun ownership is the same way.  Owners have the responsibility to make sure their firearms are maintained, secure, and, above everything else- respected, by everyone in their family.  And that means education, on the danger of guns, the value of human life, and how none of this situation should  ever be taken lightly.  This isn’t a one time deal to be mentioned in passing either, but something that needs to be ingrained into everyone over and over, so that there is no doubt the seriousness of the subject matter.

If anywhere the ball was dropped, it was probably this.  I never knew Nancy Lanza, but from all accounts she seemed like a good, charitable person.  But while she certainly exercised her right to own guns, it doesn’t seem like she fulfill all her responsibilities.  Knowing full well her son’s mental state, she kept multiple guns in the house, and even took him to the firing range.  In short, she taught him much about guns, but she was never able to convey that respect to him.  It was a tragic combination, as she, and the rest of us, found out all too well.

So yeah, I know the gun debate is going to rage as a result of this.  I know some will echo my view points, and some will echo the opposite.  And I’m sure those in support of the second amendment will be callously accused of “not caring about the victims”.   Which is bullshit, of course.  We care, and every single one of us would have loved the opportunity to have stopped this sick bastard from doing what he did.  Not wanting a knee-jerk law that will harm good, responsible people and be ignored by bad people doesn’t change that.  

One thing that saddens me the most about this is that there will never be any justice for the children at Sandy Hook.  The killer is dead, yes, but on his terms.  He’ll never have to stand in court and face the families of those he murdered.  In that effect, he was no different than a Hamas suicide bomber, or the al Quaeda operatives who flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.  There was no exit strategy- they were expecting to die, and it was just a matter of how many people they took with them.  That’s a scary thought- when you’re dealing with someone who’s willing to sacrifice their own life to spread evil, how can you prevent it?

People do that because they think they’ll gain something in death.  For the terrorists, its a place in their sick version of paradise where they’ll be showered with virgins.  For guys like the Newtown shooter, its something a little less concrete- they get notoriety.  They become famous.  Their picture is shown ad nauseum on every news organization.  Do a quick exercise.  Can you name either perpetrator of the Columbine Massacre?  What about the Aurora Shootings?  I’m sure by now you know the name of the Newtown shooter.  

Now, off the top of your head, can you name a single one of their victims?

The number of people who can answer at least one of the first three questions, but can’t the fourth, is astronomical (and incudes me, sadly).  When these happen, its the killers, not the victims, who go down in history.  Which means, they end up getting exactly what they want.  After all, infamy is better than obscurity, right?  

And maybe, just maybe, that’s the true key to curtailing these trends of shootings.

There’s no law to pass here.  I’m not advocating the restriction of the press, but any responsible news organization should do this.  And that’s reward any mass shooter, whether they live or die in their crime, not with wall to wall coverage and pictures and publicity, but with eternal obscurity.  Do not mention their names.  Do not show their picture.  Strip them of all identity.  They’re simply a monster, a faceless animal who tore apart the innocent with their claws of evil, and is to be disposed of, never to be seen or thought about again, preferably in a nameless grave.  Focus the coverage on those who truly deserve their lives to be known- the victims.  Tell us who they were, what they were like.  Show us THEIR pictures, even though seeing their smiling, innocent face is going to break our hearts.  

Instead of their murderers, let the names of Kelly Fleming, Cassie Bernall, Alexander Boik, Veronica Moiser-Sullivan, Charlotte Bacon, Chase Kowalski, and Allison Wyatt be on our tongues, as we speak of lives taken too soon, of potential that was lost, of families with one less spot at the dinner table.

And most of all, just remember that, whether liberal, conservative, athiest, religious, libertarian, whatever, we’re all affected by this, and we’re all in the same boat here.  We need to love, or at least respect each other.  I know I’m guilty of this too... just earlier this week I made a joke about bombing “union thugs” in the wake of Michigan’s Right To Work act.  That was shortsighted, and it took remembering what true horror and thugs are to make me realize what a stupid, selfish thing to say was, even in frustration.

We got a long way to go, everyone.  And the time for us to take another step is upon us.

We just damn well better make sure we’re truly taking the right one before we take it.

Anyways, thanks for reading this, and hopefully I didn't piss all you off too much. Please stay tuned for the next post, which will be back in character, and likely as Pollaski-esque as I normally am.