Not Now

Today I have an opinion I'd like to share. I don't know that it will be popular, or that me having my say-so will make any difference, but here it goes anyway.

By now, I'm sure there's not a single US citizen that hasn't heard about the recent school shooting in Connecticut. My heart hurts when I think about it. Friday, I avoided Facebook  because all the posts were bringing me to tears. I haven't read too much in the news either, because I just can't take it. I can't even imagine how the families of the victims must feel.

However, on Saturday, I braved Facebook and a few news sites, and my feeds were a deluge of people arguing about guns. From gun rights people, I saw every version of "guns don't kill people, people do" imaginable. From those who oppose guns, I saw everything from "we need stricter gun laws" to "ban all assault weapons now." This is not unexpected; it happens every time there's a gun-related tragedy in the news.

I don't know why, but I just couldn't help it. When I saw these, I got angry. Now is not the time for this crap, people! It's only been four days since the shooting, some families are likely still struggling with accepting that this is real, that this atrocity isn't some nightmare they're going to wake up from any second. The last thing they need is the TV and Internet inundated with politicians, activists, and armchair bureaucrats arguing about gun rights and dragging their murdered children into the fray. There's only a week left until Christmas, I'm sure things are hard enough for them without having to hear a bunch of idiots talking about it like it's just another statistic. What they need is time to mourn and time to bury their dead in peace. The way I see it, using the Newtown victims as fodder for your political agenda is little better than the Westboro Baptist folks protesting at soldiers' funerals.

I know some think that now is the perfect time, while the tragedy is still fresh in people's minds, to have this discussion and work on a solution, but I'm telling you that's not true. This argument has been going on for years, and we're no closer to a viable solution now than we were when the Columbine shootings occurred. And even if we were to miraculously all agree on what must be done, it would take weeks at the very least to get new laws passed through Congress. Trust me, this argument can wait a couple of weeks. Please, let's all take a break and give these families a little bit of respect.