Guns, gunshots and thoughts and prayers

On Valentine's Day, of all days, a nineteen year old, armed with an automatic weapon went to his former high school and shot 32 people, killing 17 of them. 

Let that sink in.

We keep hearing the number 17, but that number is wrong.   There are still people who lived through the shooting, in the hospital,fighting for their lives. 

Last year, kowtowing to his masters the NRA,  Donald John Trump overrode Obama era legislation to keep guns out of the hands of the mentally ill, but the FIRST words out of their mouths when a white male shoots up a room is  "Oh, he had a mental illness"  HELLO????  so, we use the excuse that DJT made possible.

I can't help thinking of all the "Thoughts and prayers" the lawmakers of this country are sending out. Nice, but can you follow it up with "Change and action"?

I am heartened by the uprising of young people who are standing up and saying WE NEED CHANGE.  We do. 

How is it you can't buy a freaking BEER in most states until you are 21, but can go out and buy a semi-automatic weapon at 18?

I see that CHILDREN are being taught to sacrifice themselves for their classmates as part of "active shooter" training.  WHAT?  Distract the shooter so he shoots at YOU so other people can get out?  What is THAT to tell someone?  The active shooter training I received at work- I work in a public library- did NOT include that piece of advice.

Hearing the kids from Douglas High School reminded me of when there was a shooting at MY high school.  Two gang members got into it ,over a girl or an insult, I can't remember. One brought a shotgun to school.  This was in the early 70's when it was illegal to own an automatic weapon.  I remember them carrying the wounded boy to the office. I turned and fled down a hall of the nearest building.  I grabbed my very tall, very white friend and told him we had to hide. The school we went to had a lot of racial tension in addition to a gang problem.  We went to class which was in the library, which in retrospect was NOT my best idea, but I was around 16, I guess.  The library was all plate glass windows and in the ensuing riot, we were all herded into a very small utility closet where we were kept for several hours. I was claustrophobic before that but the incident made it worse.

I cannot imagine the carnage if that gang member had had an automatic weapon.

We need to change the availability of such weapons to just anyone.  I am sick of the posts about cars killing people.  Listen, in order to drive a car, you need to take a test and prove that you can handle it.  We don't just flip 15 year-olds car keys and say "there ya go Bubba, Have at it"

I'm also getting tired of the memes saying all of this is caused because we "don't allow God in school" and "God would have prevented this"  If that is true, why didn't he stop the shooting at the Church in Texas last year, or the prayer group shooting in Charleston the year before?  I read some stupid comment that this shooting was "God's will"  Well, if this is His will,do you accept everything that happens as God's will?  If you get cancer, do you go to the doctor or just accept that He will heal you?  No.  We have the brains to heal and we have the brains to fix this problem.  Some people are wringing their hands and say it's a "Society problem"   Let's look at the root causes then, but we need to get weapons of this caliber OUT of the hands of people who are unfit to wield them.