I've been thinking about something recently; why does America still have guns?
I mean, I'm no expert but when it gets to the point where there are more mass shootings in a year (372) than there are ACTUAL days, surely you've got to think about changing things?
But, in the interest of fairness, I thought I'd do a bit of research and watch some video's of pro-gun campaigners whereupon I came across a gem of a quote.
It's tragic, really , but you have to afford yourself a sigh of desperation otherwise you will just cry; “guns don't kill people, people kill people".
Yep, someone did say that. More than one person, in fact.
Just to be clear, 33,336 people were shot dead in 2015 but, according to these people, the gun didn't kill them.
If you ask these gun fanatics, it didn't even have a mild part to play in the death - the cause was solely the murderer and their mindset.
So, the 4 year old who shot her mum in a supermarket with an Uzi? Are we just expected to believe the kid knew what they were doing, that they intended to shoot their mother? Or, more feasibly, was it just the most unfortunate case of a child and their curiosity?
It sounds terrible to put it like that but, in truth, that's what it was - curiosity.
You're four, you see a squeezy thing so you squeeze it.
It's incredibly simple, the only way you can stop these tragedies happening is by getting rid of the guns.
Another quote, “it's the mental state of the shooter that is to blame”, it's a factor for sure but if you took away their means of killing, then there would be no deaths.
I'll give you an example, if I'm presented with two alleyways; one has a mentally-serene man holding a gun. The other, a schizophrenic, mentally disturbed man with a stick. I'm going to take my chances with the stick guy all day long.
It's a stupid example, but you get my point, if you take away the guns then, no matter the mental health of a person, instantly it'll be a safer environment.
The thing is, I know that for as long as I live, there will be memories etched in my brain like the ink on the paper of history books.
There will be happy ones, sad ones but also one's that should never have happened.
Aurora. Charleston. Sandy Hook. Orlando. San Bernardino. Fort Hood.
It's 4,000 miles away and yet every time these incidents came on the news, I just felt a wave of sadness.
I've been on this planet for 16 short years and it is littered with devastation, and it sounds silly to say it but the hatred that these events symbolise will stay with me for a long time.
I'm fed up with Americans saying “it's in the constitution, you can't take our guns away".
At what point will they finally realise that it is not normal for people to be walking around with guns, shooting whoever they please?
It's not just citizens, it's the police as well.
There are hundreds of cases where the police have wrongfully shot a member of the public and then tried to cover it up. We only hear about a handful of them.
Guns have impacted American culture so much that, for some reason, the very people who are meant to keep us safe everyday have started shooting innocent people. Not by accident, either, in stone cold blood.
There's a video of a guy laying on the floor, playing with a toy truck, he even says “it's just a toy truck”. The police officer shoots him anyway.
He didn't die but that's really not the point.
How many more people have to actually die before it finally clicks that guns are all sorts of wrong?
It's definitely not going to happen in the next 4 years, Trump has already said that. So that's, what, 150-200,000 innocent people having their lives senselessly taken away because America lacks any common sense.
Let's deal with the legality as well, yes you can change the constitution, by something called an amendment.
Funnily enough, the right to bear arms is the second amendment. The constitution was changed to include guns, it can just as easily be changed to exclude them.
I'll finish with this point, Kinder Eggs are banned from America because apparently it's a health hazard.
You can buy a gun at supermarket in America, you can't buy a kinder egg because, apparently, the chocolate is more dangerous.
I'm done, I'm actually just done.
Who even needs a gun? Seriously, who?
Why is America incapable of feeling shame in anything they do?
When will common decency and basic humility come into the debate?
“Guns don't kill people, people kill people", just let that sink in and try to comprehend the idiotic culture that is giving way to so much hatred and then wonder why it's no surprise that Trump got elected.
The country feeds on division, it gives an excuse for people to act in ways seemingly inhumane and I despair with them, I really do.
America, you need to change.
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