A Different POV on the SCOTUS 2A Decision

~A note to my (mostly Liberal) co-workers who are my friends and fellow warriors in surviving our organization's madness

Most of you don't know this, but I am the step-daughter of a cop. I was raised by him from the age of five when he married my mother. Blessedly, he is still around as he lives out his golden years as a retired sheriff's deputy in Pima County. During his years on the force it became apparent he was one of the good ones. He fought the sheriff on ticket quotas (and won!), and let my high school boyfriend off with just a warning when he pulled him over a few years after we graduated. When he recognized his name, he asked if he was the same Bobby who dated his daughter, and, thus, the warning materialized. 

I was taught gun safety at a very early age and learned to shoot when I was a bit older. Though it wasn't something I necessarily loved doing, I knew it was important for self-defense. When I turned 18 and moved out, he bought me a handgun and made sure I knew how to care for and use it properly. I have never had to use it in the most extreme sense, but it did make my ex-husband and me feel safer when an intoxicated, mentally ill homeless man tried to come through our doggie door at 2 a.m. Thankfully, the cops arrived just in time as he was half-way through the flap and about to pull himself upright. Had we not had my pistol, we would have had no way to defend ourselves had he made it all the way through. 

The tragedies taking place with mass shootings in our country are devastating, disgusting, and almost entirely preventable. Most of us feel incredibly frustrated every time a new shooting breaks in the news and call loudly for something to be done to ward off the next mass-casualty event. But, to be frank, any prevention measures should under no circumstances include taking away firearms from law-abiding folks. Legal gun owners aren't the problem. We actually need more citizens trained in firearm care and usage. Here are some “did you knows” to illustrate my points.

Did you know the vast majority of these shooters have a very similar profile? Many obtained their firearms illegally, as criminals, by definition, don’t follow laws. (Notice that the “gun free zones” don’t work?) And with very few exceptions, there are SSRIs or similar neuropharmacological drugs involved. The people who carryout this level of senseless violence clearly aren’t well. Also critical to mention is that most of these shooters have had contact with and/or were on a watch list of law enforcement of some kind, often the FBI. Yet, they do nothing time and again. Look at what happened at Uvalde. Even with their stories constantly changing (and the PD and school district recently lawyered up, so what does that say?), no one is disputing that they stood around and did NOTHING while CHILDREN were killed! (Have you asked yourself why they did this? That’s a post for another day, perhaps.)

Did you know that SCOTUS has ruled that police don't have to protect us? So much for “Protect and Serve.” Whatever happened to Officer Friendly? Was he real? I’d like to think so as I remember my stepdad’s form of policing. But now we’ve seen authorities stand around while parents begged them to save their children. (Unthinkable!) As humans, we have a God-given right to defend ourselves. Governments don’t get to take this away. And even if you don’t subscribe to any spiritual beliefs, do you really think we were born only to be subjugated by those in positions of power?

Did you know there are stories all the time about well-trained citizens who have stopped shooters in churches and other public places? Consider seeking out these videos. Most aren’t gory as these well-trained folk handle situations adeptly to minimize loss of life. You will be amazed at how brave, every-day Americans are risking their lives to save others. Not heard of these stories much? They don't usually make the news because they don’t fit the narrative, but that, too, is a topic for another day.

The cancer that is mass shootings is multi-faceted and, thus, needs to be tackled with various, creative approaches, including completely overhauling (yes, I said it) the mental health system in our country. It is long overdue to actually address this crisis versus merely talking about it or trying to medicate it away. There are so many answers to these problems if we just come together and look deeper rather than just screaming that “it’s the guns!!” And, again, the scourge that is mass shootings is multi-faceted and both long-term and immediate solutions are needed .

One idea in the “immediate” category has been to place armed, well-trained, and well-screened retired police, military, and citizens at every school, and other public places, in this country. We seem to have the money to send gazillions of the print-into-oblivion U.S. Dollar to other countries, so it seems only reasonable that we spend a bit here at home. Armed societies are polite societies, as the saying goes, and statistics from countries that have high gun ownership support this notion. Switzerland, for example, has not had a mass shooting in over 20 years.

The SCOTUS 2A decision, whether some realize it or not, protects us as (currently) free people. Look at totalitarian regimes of the past: Stain, Mao, Pol Pot, Hitler. They all disarmed their citizens before mass genocide. Now, I'm not saying that is what would happen here. But, for a more modern representation, look at Australia. Again, it doesn't make the evening news, but since they disarmed that country the amount of extreme government overreach (some might say tyranny is a better word) is beyond the pale. And the UK is notorious for jailing dissidents. Look at Julian Assange, who famously said that when the full truth of corruption and criminality comes out about western governments, something like 98% would be in prison. Now you know why law-abiding gun owners say they will never give up their firearms. The Second Amendment was always about citizens being able to defend themselves against a tyrannical government. That's the history and intent of it, in a nutshell.

And anyone who still thinks the U.S. government is on our side is asleep at the wheel at this point. Research operations like the Tuskegee Experiment and other atrocities our government has perpetrated against their citizens often targeting poor and marginalized people. A quick search for ‘U.S. government illegal experiments on its citizens’ will produce eye-opening results.

If you prefer dramatic illustrations, watch shows like Dope Sick, a short series about the opioid crisis, to see how big pharma and the FDA are in bed together. Watch Dark Waters, which shows the crimes and dangers surrounding manufacturing Teflon and how there are hundreds of "forever chemicals" that the EPA allows companies to self-regulate to this day (maybe the recent SCOTUS decision will curtail that kind of corruption going forward— something to think about). Then there’s Snowfall, a series about how the CIA pumped cocaine into the L.A. projects thereby created the crack cocaine epidemic of the 80s. Their so-called black (meaning secretive, off-book) projects are funded by these types of activities. They used the money from decimating the Black community with crack addiction and subsequent gang wars to fund illegal wars in Central America. 

Oh, and this probably goes without saying at this point, but there is no Red or Blue, R v. D here. It's a freaking uni-party. Very few in D.C. are working for us, the People. (Do we have yet a third “topic for another day?”)

It is estimated that there are over 390 million legal firearms in this country and trillions of rounds of ammunition. If we were the dangerous ones, you'd know it. And I'll put a stake in the ground now and say that they will never disarm our country. You may still trust our government. I, however, do not. And millions of other other Americans feel the same.

Many of you may dislike what I've written here. But it is all factual information easily confirmed in the public domain. And I'm more than happy to answer any questions you may have and discuss what I've shared with you today. Outside of work, I'm an extensive researcher, writer, and activist with a steadfast belief that humanity is worth fighting for. Monsanto once blocked me on social media. I took that as a badge of honor.

Please take this in the spirit of which it was intended: to share the "other side" of the argument and some facts that maybe y'all were not aware of prior. Know that this post was done out of kindness and love and that I will always value your friendship even if I’m no longer your favorite canary in a coalmine (inside joke between my coworkers and me).

"When the people fear the government, there’s tyranny. When the government fears the people, there’s liberty." ~ Thomas Jefferson