Dear Friends,

I had a difficult time forming my thoughts this week. How do I share my feelings of despair, sadness, fear, and anxiety in under 1,000 words?

I am a proud Army Veteran. I am pro-gun ownership. I understand more than most that weapons are necessary for war and to keep the peace. I grew up around guns; my father has them, my husband owns them, and I know plenty of people with concealed carry permits. To my family, it’s a natural part of our life.

What’s not natural, what I cannot understand, is the war we have declared on one another.

I believe in defending our nation, one another, and that sometimes we must use force to keep what is ours.

What I can’t defend is the recent incident that took the lives of 19 innocent children and 2 adults in Uvalde.

I can’t defend the taking of 10 souls from Buffalo.

I have not justification for the over 200 victims of mass shootings that have occurred in the United States so far in 2022.

I don’t know how to explain the over 20,000 lives lost in 2021 from gun violence, including 693 victims of mass shootings.

Did you know that there is a Wikipedia page dedicated to the annual totals for mass shootings? We are barely halfway through 2022 and the list was staggering, with details on how many injuries, deaths, and details about each incident.

What are we, the people, to do?

The most common argument of gun owners is “don’t punish the innocent who follow the rules” or “it’s my second amendment right.”

If you do a little research, you’ll find that the actual intention of the 2nd amendment was never to let you own as many guns as you want, any kind, without oversight or regulation. I get into this argument all the time with my husband, who believes that’s exactly what the 2nd amendment means.

The 2nd amendment does not just say “the right to bear arms”. The entire line of the 2nd Amendment reads:

“A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

Everyone always forgets the first part of this, which when you read the entire statement gives you the full intention. This amendment was created to give we, the people, the ability to form a militia; to defend ourselves from attack, defend our family, land, and homes. In fact, according to statements from James Madison, the original intention of this amendment was to keep the U.S. from creating a standing military, rather giving individuals the authority to create militias as needed.

What are we, the people, to do?

I am in favor of increased background checks, because if you are the honest, “doing the right thing” gunowner, then you have nothing to worry about. Not only that, but I think some kind of routine renewal should be a part of that. If you have a driver’s license, you must renew it every 4 to 8 years (depending on the state), so why are we not checking in on our gun owners?

While I am supportive of this, I don’t think it’s going to solve the problem we have right now. Most incidents we have heard about recently are from younger offenders. And what do we hear afterwards?

“We knew something wasn’t right.”

“They had problems.”

“They were on our radar.”

When are we going to come together as we, the people, and say “enough is enough”? When will doing the right thing outweigh someone’s political ambitions? When will the price of a human life going to be more valuable than the profit and pull that the NRA has?

I am so disgusted that after what happened this week, that the NRA still held their rally in Texas. It is a shining example of how out of touch they are with this nation and it was disrespectful to the families of Uvalde. It was cold, unkind, and utterly indefensible.

Despite going through the motions of offering “prayers to the families,” they showed us loud and clear that they don’t care. Not only does the NRA not care, but every political figure and person who attended and supported the rally showed us loud and clear where their priorities are.

It makes me sick, and it should not only infuriate you, but should make you really think about the people who blindly follow their lead.

There’s a saying: “When people show you who they are, believe them.” Well, everyone who was a part of this just showed you, loud and clear, who they are and what matters, and it’s not we, the people.

I wish I had an answer to fix this problem. I wish I could say that this one was enough to wake up our nation, leaders, and lawmakers to finally take steps to do something. But, in my heart, I know it’s not.

The innocent victims will be just another list of names on a Wikipedia page. We’ll send thoughts and prayers to the families. We will watch videos of candlelight vigils and memorial services. We’ll talk about how brave they were, who they could have grown up to be, what they could have done with their lives. We’ll create memorials, scholarships, and activism groups in their names. Weeks will go by, and the noise will lessen, and each year on the anniversary we’ll talk about it again. Until the next one.

Meanwhile we, the people, become more cautious.

We think twice about going grocery shopping, or to the mall.

When we attend large events, we we’ll quickly scan the room for the exits, just in case.

We will train our children how to “hide” if there is danger at school and increase the number of lockdown drills.

We will kiss our children goodbye each morning, telling them we love them, and silently praying that they return home each day.

I will end this week with a quote I saw earlier this week; I hope those with the power to do something will think about this, and take action:

“There is something deeply hypocritical about praying for a problem you are unwilling to resolve.” ~ Miroslav Volf

~ We, the People.

The views and opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views and positions of any entity that this author represents.