I hadn’t been to a memorial service since 1988. That changed today. The departed, one of the students at my school, was born in 1988.
Some things are just not right. I shouldn’t be going to the funeral of an 18 year-old. I mean, I recognize that I’ve been blessed to have a very limited consciousness of death; I know people die - I complain about it all the time - but I don’t know very many people who have died. Being real about it, there have probably been a few instances when my family could’ve been sitting on the front row, and I’ve been spared those too. All that to say that today’s wake was particularly disturbing to me.
It might’ve been a little easier to take if the boy had died of natural causes, but he didn’t. He got shot over the weekend. Now I’ve never been a strong “gun control” advocate - I’ve even considered getting a piece for myself - but stuff like this makes me rethink my position a little. Yeah, the constitution says we have the right to bear arms, but sometimes I think we’ve taken it too far. Take me, for instance. I want(ed) a gun for graduation. For what? I don’t really need one, I just wanted one because I could have it. And who knows, maybe once the pain of this wears off, I’ll be back looking for a Glock or a Ruger. But right now? I’m not really seeing it. I know my man, Jared, has the whole issue settled in his mind, but I can’t go on his reasons. They’re good for him, but if I’m gonna do it, I’d better have my own set of reasons. Right now, the only reason I can think of is “because I can,” which ain’t good enough.
But even me owning a gun still doesn’t get at the problem of getting guns out of the hands of people who are going to use them to commit murder and mayhem against the citizenry. My gun, if I get one, will be bought legally and stored securely, and used with safety in mind. That ain’t got nothin’ to do with these knuckleheads out there shootin. Me personally, I’m perfectly willing to have a waiting period to buy a gun, but then I’m not the one who gun laws are supposed to protect people against. Even though they lobby against gun laws as if their lives depend on it, gun laws aren’t even about the NRA. Gun laws are really about the people who use guns illegally. So in a way, that’s an attempt at legislating illegal behavior, if that makes any sense. Obviously it doesn’t, but I’m sayin’.
We know what one side is about. There’s a whole bunch of people who want the United States to go the way of other industrialized nations and permanently ban handguns. Then there are others of us who want no such thing. But just looking at the murder rate in cities, Philly in particular, and being touched especially close to home this week, I’m thinking that the people who advocate the hardest for the right to bear arms need to get up off the principle and show a little interest in what’s going on around us. To me, the 2nd amendment is a lot like the First: yeah, we can, but just because we can don’t necessarily mean we should. So let’s find something between those poles that will actually make life better.
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