Friday, December 21, 2012
If not now, when????
visit: innw.org to take the pledge and join the group against gun violence in our country.
Monday, December 17, 2012
Gun supporter with a high NRA rating now changes his views on guns! There is hope!
This brings me a lot of hope! This news personnel has received NRA support and acclaim over the years for his support of them....however after the tragedy in Connecticut he, like many of us, has decided enough is enough when we have started to kill educators and 6 yr old angels! How can so many others be in a state of sleep...blind to the reality of our current society? This man....Joe...gives me hope! Mr. President gives me hope! Click here for the poignant words of a man with a changed heart.
My personal perspective of guns is that the 2nd Amendment will never be completely overwritten...but we have an obligation to protect our children. Sunday in RS we learned that our obligation as parents out weighs all other duties...and that we can not depend on the government, the public schools or the church to teach and nurture and protect our children. We have to do it ourselves. I call on all parents to stand up for the safety of our children. I will proudly stand next to my many hunter friends and family...people who proudly own guns and take the responsibility seriously, if they too will say that it is time to change the gun laws...to improve mental health care and awareness and to come together as a country at this time when our hearts are still aching for those lives lost. Now is the time to think about this...if we let ourselves move on and our hearts turn away gradually from those lost...we will forget the importance and we will allow it to happen again. I understand that people feel the need to protect their homes...but violence added on violence is not the solution. More guns would equal more deaths. We need to lower the amount of guns in circulation as our country has the most guns per people than any other country! (I heard that Yemen might be the only country with more guns). How can we not see that the issue is not easy....it is complex...but it involves too many guns, easily accessible...and that if we don't take at least small steps...we will all have to explain to our Heavenly Father how we allowed for the deaths of so many...100,000 in the last 10 years...the worst mass killings have been since 2007! How can we be so blind to the epidemic in front of us?! Are we that desensitized? Are we that apathetic? Have we forgotten the 2nd greatest commandment to love one another? I do not understand it when people say things like, "Well, I am responsible with my guns." These people are only concerned about themselves...we have become such a selfish people. I pray I can raise my children to be able to put themselves aside and to focus on others. There is no greater feeling than serving, loving or anxiously engaged in the good of other people.
I am not perfect...I strive to put my own pride aside and help others. I get too heated with people over this issue bc I cannot understand their perspective. I can't understand how my fellow LDS people can be so apathetic...and say that they can't change anything and that they will just do what they can to help and protect their own families...which usually involves more guns in their home.
When I dropped off my oldest daughter today at kindergarten I could not stop hugging her. I held back my urge to call out her name as she opened the door to the school, and to call her back to the car to take her safely home. I cried on my way home bc I ached for the people who lost their children not knowing that when they dropped them off at school it was the last time they would see their child alive. I ache for Emilie Parker's family...for Daniel's for Olivia's family. I ache for the family of that brave principal who laid down her life in an attempt to subdue or restrain the madman killing innocent children.
Children die all the time across this country from bullets of guns legally bought in our country. Many are accidents, many are suicides and murders...too many are mass killings from people who are mentally ill. What will you do today to move forward and to make a change? There are petitions you can sign, there are people you can write to urge them to change. Only when this country honors this land as a land of promise...a land given to us by the Savior and our God....only when we do all we can to ensure it is a land free of bondage will the Lord bless us and keep us safe from other nations. If we can't keep ourselves safe from gun violence within our own borders...how can we begin to prepare for outside attacks.
There will always be evil. There will always be murders and violence and crime. But does that mean we do not do all we can to prevent even a little...save even one more life? The Savior has taught that He would leave the 99 and search out that one....are we not supposed to be like the Savior? Isn't every soul of good worth and worth saving from evil...both temporally and spiritually?
This is my perspective....this is my passionate view. I have ALWAYS been passionately opposed to guns in my own home, to hunting just for sport and to murderous weapons being so readily available and highly circulated in our country. However, it takes this tragedy compacted with the many recent events like it for me to know that I have to voice my opinion and I have to do what I know is right and all I can do in order to ensure our elected officials know that many of us WANT change and will work hard to do all we can for that change.
My personal perspective of guns is that the 2nd Amendment will never be completely overwritten...but we have an obligation to protect our children. Sunday in RS we learned that our obligation as parents out weighs all other duties...and that we can not depend on the government, the public schools or the church to teach and nurture and protect our children. We have to do it ourselves. I call on all parents to stand up for the safety of our children. I will proudly stand next to my many hunter friends and family...people who proudly own guns and take the responsibility seriously, if they too will say that it is time to change the gun laws...to improve mental health care and awareness and to come together as a country at this time when our hearts are still aching for those lives lost. Now is the time to think about this...if we let ourselves move on and our hearts turn away gradually from those lost...we will forget the importance and we will allow it to happen again. I understand that people feel the need to protect their homes...but violence added on violence is not the solution. More guns would equal more deaths. We need to lower the amount of guns in circulation as our country has the most guns per people than any other country! (I heard that Yemen might be the only country with more guns). How can we not see that the issue is not easy....it is complex...but it involves too many guns, easily accessible...and that if we don't take at least small steps...we will all have to explain to our Heavenly Father how we allowed for the deaths of so many...100,000 in the last 10 years...the worst mass killings have been since 2007! How can we be so blind to the epidemic in front of us?! Are we that desensitized? Are we that apathetic? Have we forgotten the 2nd greatest commandment to love one another? I do not understand it when people say things like, "Well, I am responsible with my guns." These people are only concerned about themselves...we have become such a selfish people. I pray I can raise my children to be able to put themselves aside and to focus on others. There is no greater feeling than serving, loving or anxiously engaged in the good of other people.
I am not perfect...I strive to put my own pride aside and help others. I get too heated with people over this issue bc I cannot understand their perspective. I can't understand how my fellow LDS people can be so apathetic...and say that they can't change anything and that they will just do what they can to help and protect their own families...which usually involves more guns in their home.
When I dropped off my oldest daughter today at kindergarten I could not stop hugging her. I held back my urge to call out her name as she opened the door to the school, and to call her back to the car to take her safely home. I cried on my way home bc I ached for the people who lost their children not knowing that when they dropped them off at school it was the last time they would see their child alive. I ache for Emilie Parker's family...for Daniel's for Olivia's family. I ache for the family of that brave principal who laid down her life in an attempt to subdue or restrain the madman killing innocent children.
Children die all the time across this country from bullets of guns legally bought in our country. Many are accidents, many are suicides and murders...too many are mass killings from people who are mentally ill. What will you do today to move forward and to make a change? There are petitions you can sign, there are people you can write to urge them to change. Only when this country honors this land as a land of promise...a land given to us by the Savior and our God....only when we do all we can to ensure it is a land free of bondage will the Lord bless us and keep us safe from other nations. If we can't keep ourselves safe from gun violence within our own borders...how can we begin to prepare for outside attacks.
There will always be evil. There will always be murders and violence and crime. But does that mean we do not do all we can to prevent even a little...save even one more life? The Savior has taught that He would leave the 99 and search out that one....are we not supposed to be like the Savior? Isn't every soul of good worth and worth saving from evil...both temporally and spiritually?
This is my perspective....this is my passionate view. I have ALWAYS been passionately opposed to guns in my own home, to hunting just for sport and to murderous weapons being so readily available and highly circulated in our country. However, it takes this tragedy compacted with the many recent events like it for me to know that I have to voice my opinion and I have to do what I know is right and all I can do in order to ensure our elected officials know that many of us WANT change and will work hard to do all we can for that change.
Saturday, December 15, 2012
Why would gun control work? Exhibit A, our fist evidence: Australia.
Here is an article depicting the changes made since a mass shooting in 1996 in Australia. Click HERE.
If you do not click on the link...let me paraphrase: Australia had a mass shooting in 1996 and they made changes to their gun laws...since then there has not been an attack similar.
I hope the tragedy of Sandy Brook will inspire others to change their views on gun laws here in the States.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/12/newtown_tragedy_how_the_school_shooting_could_finally_change_how_americans.html?wpisrc=most_viral
Click here
It beautifully says my thoughts about moving forward from the tragedy and heart ache of the massacre in our elementary school in Conn.
Another article about why the 2nd Amendment is out of date: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/1217/Madison-never-meant-Second-Amendment-to-allow-guns-of-Sandy-Hook-shooting
If you do not click on the link...let me paraphrase: Australia had a mass shooting in 1996 and they made changes to their gun laws...since then there has not been an attack similar.
I hope the tragedy of Sandy Brook will inspire others to change their views on gun laws here in the States.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2012/12/newtown_tragedy_how_the_school_shooting_could_finally_change_how_americans.html?wpisrc=most_viral
Click here
It beautifully says my thoughts about moving forward from the tragedy and heart ache of the massacre in our elementary school in Conn.
Another article about why the 2nd Amendment is out of date: http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2012/1217/Madison-never-meant-Second-Amendment-to-allow-guns-of-Sandy-Hook-shooting
Friday, December 14, 2012
Why do I do this to myself?! Dang facebook freaks!
I don't know why I get onto facebook! I get upset every time I do bc I get so frustrated by the absolute ignorance of people! It astounds me! Baffles me! Makes me laughs and also makes me ill.
Today a horrific thing happened to babies...little ones ages 5-10 years old. I had not watched the news or gotten on the computer until the evening and when I saw what had happened I could not help but cry and pray and cry and pray for the people in Connecticut. Such a senseless and incomprehensible act.
Again my activism for stricter gun laws is renewed by yet another killing. But this time...babies. How many people have harped on me for supporting more choices with women's health care and more education on abortion...and yet when there is a young man who has access to semi-automatic weapons and kills babies with it...robs families of their beautiful spirits some people still cling to their "rights" and the 2nd Amendment and their precious hobby of killing things with guns! I will never understand this perspective. I will never agree that today is the same as it was when the 2nd Amendment was written. That our right to bare arms is just as important today as in those horrible living conditions and tumultuous times. I will never agree that those men who wrote the 2nd Amendment meant that people with our technology and our society would need such immense weaponry available to us...legally.
But I understand that not all guns, to my sadness, can be taken away or banished from all Americans. There must be compromise. And those shotgun toting, gun-clingers better count their blessings that I am not in any position to pass the gun control law. :) But I do think that change is necessary. I have written my local authorities as well as signed petitions and written the White House. I encourage all to do so. We need a change in gun laws. We have more guns in our country than any other country except Yemen! Not to mention we have more killings in any country by 1,000's a year! These numbers are 2011, I believe.
Great Britain: 8
Japan: 48
Israel: 58
West Germany: 42
USA: 10,728!!!!!
Really America?
We need to decide. What is more important? Our babies or our semi-automatics? What do we value more our freedoms to carry a weapon or our lives? What is more valuable...our hobbies or our loved ones?
This is yet another example of American society not being the light of the world...but the joke of the world. America not taking our liberties and opportunities with grace and eloquence...but using our freedoms or our rights as a threat to other Americans who value lives, children, our loved ones' safety more than something written 100's of years ago...long before the advances of technology the rapid growth of population and the deterioration of integrity, and honor. Today Americans act like spoiled little brats throwing a tantrum over a toy they want. Get over it and grow up America!
This is a literal conversation a friend of a friend on fb and I had over gun control.
I stated in a general way that we needed more mental health care available, and stricter gun laws, and that the security of the school is not the issue. To that, this person responded with the following...brace yourself:
Look at Chicago: Incredibly anti-gun policies, yet one of the highest crime rates and murder cities in the USA. Less regulation on guns is vital. You really think someone will rob a bank when everyone else in there has a gun? The kind of person who killed those children today can't be stopped. They have a death wish. I will not give up my rights because someone else abuses theirs'.
I respond:
"WHAT!? So your answer to this case Scott is to have the teacher packing heat?! Ridiculous!"
This person responds with the best yet: Why not?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this person finds that the solution to the killings of our babies in a school which had apparently wonderful security...have the teachers carry firearms! That is it!!! Where has this person been hiding! He is BRILLIANT! I can't wait to send my child to the first school where all teachers carry a holster for their gun!
This man represents to me our society of blind men and women who just want to be right about their rights. They just want a gun...to feel like a man? To kill a deer? To protect themselves from the apocolypse in 7 days....whatever reason these gun-toting Americans have for defending their weapons---it is definitely not because they want safety! More guns does not create safety!!! More untrained, stupid Americans toting semi-automatics, shot guns...what have you!---is not a GOOD idea!
Mr. President I am counting on you! Make it happen....and then make sure to up security on you and your family and the White House...bc I fear these advocates for the 2nd Amendment are a little too passionate--and we all know they are armed.
I pray for safety, love, tolerance, compromise, change...but most of all I pray for peace and help for the victims' families tonight. I can't stop praying and crying about it...and I know I won't sleep. May God bless this country despite the evil, despite the ignorance and despite the pride of our people.
Today a horrific thing happened to babies...little ones ages 5-10 years old. I had not watched the news or gotten on the computer until the evening and when I saw what had happened I could not help but cry and pray and cry and pray for the people in Connecticut. Such a senseless and incomprehensible act.
Again my activism for stricter gun laws is renewed by yet another killing. But this time...babies. How many people have harped on me for supporting more choices with women's health care and more education on abortion...and yet when there is a young man who has access to semi-automatic weapons and kills babies with it...robs families of their beautiful spirits some people still cling to their "rights" and the 2nd Amendment and their precious hobby of killing things with guns! I will never understand this perspective. I will never agree that today is the same as it was when the 2nd Amendment was written. That our right to bare arms is just as important today as in those horrible living conditions and tumultuous times. I will never agree that those men who wrote the 2nd Amendment meant that people with our technology and our society would need such immense weaponry available to us...legally.
But I understand that not all guns, to my sadness, can be taken away or banished from all Americans. There must be compromise. And those shotgun toting, gun-clingers better count their blessings that I am not in any position to pass the gun control law. :) But I do think that change is necessary. I have written my local authorities as well as signed petitions and written the White House. I encourage all to do so. We need a change in gun laws. We have more guns in our country than any other country except Yemen! Not to mention we have more killings in any country by 1,000's a year! These numbers are 2011, I believe.
Great Britain: 8
Japan: 48
Israel: 58
West Germany: 42
USA: 10,728!!!!!
Really America?
We need to decide. What is more important? Our babies or our semi-automatics? What do we value more our freedoms to carry a weapon or our lives? What is more valuable...our hobbies or our loved ones?
This is yet another example of American society not being the light of the world...but the joke of the world. America not taking our liberties and opportunities with grace and eloquence...but using our freedoms or our rights as a threat to other Americans who value lives, children, our loved ones' safety more than something written 100's of years ago...long before the advances of technology the rapid growth of population and the deterioration of integrity, and honor. Today Americans act like spoiled little brats throwing a tantrum over a toy they want. Get over it and grow up America!
This is a literal conversation a friend of a friend on fb and I had over gun control.
I stated in a general way that we needed more mental health care available, and stricter gun laws, and that the security of the school is not the issue. To that, this person responded with the following...brace yourself:
Look at Chicago: Incredibly anti-gun policies, yet one of the highest crime rates and murder cities in the USA. Less regulation on guns is vital. You really think someone will rob a bank when everyone else in there has a gun? The kind of person who killed those children today can't be stopped. They have a death wish. I will not give up my rights because someone else abuses theirs'.
I respond:
"WHAT!? So your answer to this case Scott is to have the teacher packing heat?! Ridiculous!"
This person responds with the best yet: Why not?
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, this person finds that the solution to the killings of our babies in a school which had apparently wonderful security...have the teachers carry firearms! That is it!!! Where has this person been hiding! He is BRILLIANT! I can't wait to send my child to the first school where all teachers carry a holster for their gun!
This man represents to me our society of blind men and women who just want to be right about their rights. They just want a gun...to feel like a man? To kill a deer? To protect themselves from the apocolypse in 7 days....whatever reason these gun-toting Americans have for defending their weapons---it is definitely not because they want safety! More guns does not create safety!!! More untrained, stupid Americans toting semi-automatics, shot guns...what have you!---is not a GOOD idea!
Mr. President I am counting on you! Make it happen....and then make sure to up security on you and your family and the White House...bc I fear these advocates for the 2nd Amendment are a little too passionate--and we all know they are armed.
I pray for safety, love, tolerance, compromise, change...but most of all I pray for peace and help for the victims' families tonight. I can't stop praying and crying about it...and I know I won't sleep. May God bless this country despite the evil, despite the ignorance and despite the pride of our people.
Wednesday, December 5, 2012
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