Newtown, Ct. December, 14th 2012

Guns kill people.

Q. Yes way ?  No way ?

A.  No way.

Who the hell am I to make such an affirmation? In my teens I’ve lived on a farm where there were two rifles (a ww1, 303 and a Winchester 30-30) and a 12 gauge shot gun that were used for hunting and to kill a cow in the fall, at butchery time. I’ll add to this that I have twenty-one years of military life behind me. This being said I feel amply qualified to treat the subject.

Are assault weapons necessary to protect your home? To anyone who answers yes I say that you’re full of shit. An assault rifle is an unnecessary toy, and a highly dangerous one, at that and should not be openly sold to anyone. The same must be said for large quantity shell magazines.

Did you ever notice that when a massacre like the one mentioned above happens, the first question that people ask is: ”What made him do that?” not: “What kind of gun did he use?” Isn’t that question a little strange coming from a person who will later blame guns? 

The real reasons for such massacres to happen are multiple and the main one is that insane people are walking the streets, which is a situation that shouldn’t exist. When a person’s brain is deranged to the point that he is declared as being crazy, that person should be taken off the street and never be let out.

As I was growing up in the 1940s and 1950s there existed insane asylums better known as “funny farms”. When a person was declared crazy, he or she was sent there and the key was thrown away. Unfortunately some retarded (not crazy) people were also sent there when they should definitively not have been. The village idiot who wasn’t crazy enough to start a house fire but not intelligent enough to put it out should have never been sent there.

 In the 1960s governments, using the excuse that it would be economical to close those institutions, did exactly that and since then you and I might have, or had, a completely insane person as a neighbor.

Since those years the unwritten law that says that an individual should always be in control of his or her emotions and be responsible for his actions has gone out the window. Anyone can get high on drugs and decide that he or she wants to kill people just for the pleasure of killing, and they do. Did you ever notice that after a massacre we’re never told if the killer had consumed drugs before doing it?

The third reason, and here many parents will recognize themselves, is the bringing up of “king children”. The child to whom you give everything and anything that he does or doesn’t ask for, just so that he’ll be quiet. The parent who acquiesces to the child’s every wish, thinking that he’s showing that child love. Showing love my ass. You’re, in fact, preparing an adult misfit. A teen or adult who will not be able, or have the tools, to deal with whatever life is going to throw at him and who, in some cases, will resort to violence thinking that it’s the only method to deal with his problems.

As a civilized society it is important that we all take our responsibilities as individuals, and as serious governments, by going to the source of the problem. Many people are killed on the roads each year but do we blame cars for it? No we go to the source of the accidents, the offending drivers, the ones who drive under the influence of liquor or drugs. It’s high time that we do the same if we want to stop such sad stories as the massacre in Newtown.

 

© 2013 Jean-Paul Gosselin

 

What do you think?

 

Whether you agree with or have an objection to my blog, leave a comment. I’m open to favorable or unfavorable criticism and what you write might enlighten other readers or myself.

 

Thank you.

 

Take this with you.

I was in the Express Lane at the store, quietly fuming. Completely ignoring the sign, the woman ahead of me had slipped into the check-out line pushing a cart piled high with groceries. Imagine my delight when the cashier beckoned the woman to come forward, looked into the cart and asked sweetly, 'So, which six items would you like to buy?'

Wouldn't it be great if that happened more often?!

 

Have a swell day, stay relaxed, have a beer and don’t forget: keep smiling. Life is good. Buena la vida. La vie est belle.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!----PROSPERO ANO NUEVO!----BONNE ET HEUREUSE ANNEE!