I don’t know about you but I am sick and tired of waiting around for somebody — politicians I would presume — to do something about the epidemic of mass shootings in the United States.
The latest obscenity visited upon this country was once again close to home (remember Oxford High School, November 2021?) as three Michigan State University students here in the Mitten state, were gunned down on campus and five others seriously wounded in the latest insanity to take place here.
I don’t know about you but in my fairly long life I have never once heard anyone; not a Democrat, not a Republican, not a liberal, not a conservative, call for banning guns. Never heard a single person advocate we go door to door, kicking in those doors of gun owners throughout the country and come for their guns. Never. Although that is exactly what some folks in their fever dream fantasy lives say will happen if we dare pass any type of legislation to meaningfully restrict guns in society.
But I am mad. Very mad. Mad as hell and I would prefer not sitting by and taking it anymore. If it were up to me (which it isn’t), I would call for a total ban on guns. All guns. Assault rifles. Handguns. Hunting rifles. Cute little itty-bitty derringers. Whatever. I would call for going door to door and confiscating every damn gun in this country until we were totally free of guns and gun violence.
Fortunately, it isn’t up to me to decide if we stem the tide of the more than once-a-day mass shootings we have already been subjected to in this brief year alone, by banning guns. But, it seems the time for calling on “common sense” gun laws may rapidly be coming to an end and that saddens me because I know the vast overwhelming majority of gun owners are more than responsible and dismayed by the number of daily shootings holding our nation hostage.
My wife and I have many fond memories of living in MSU’s married housing while going to school there in the 1970s and make a point of visiting East Lansing and the greater Lansing area when circumstances allow. Now though, future visits will be forever tarnished knowing of the mayhem which has visited this typical Midwestern town, just like so many other typical towns which have seen their share of violence visited upon them in this gun crazy country of ours.
It doesn’t have to be like this but I hold out little hope for things ever getting better in the future unless “we the people” rise up and demand changes be made in the name of our health and safety. Our elected leaders sure as hell are not going to do anything about this plague of gun violence holding us captive in our own country unless we make it perfectly clear this is unacceptable. Period. Vote them out of office if that is what it takes but the time has come; it has been long overdue, to take back our country from the spineless thugs in Congress and elsewhere who say nothing can be done. Nothing can be done because the Second Amendment won’t allow it.
The NRA won’t allow it. Political contributions from the NRA won’t allow it. To that I say BULL, loud and clear.
So, join me, whether you are a Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative, in demanding extreme measures during these extreme times. I was hoping it wouldn’t have to come to this but maybe if enough of us rise up to demand an end to this insanity then maybe those who hold the powers that be will take note we are serious about our dismay with the status quo and then do something requiring a backbone to stem the tide of gun violence before it is too late. I have my doubts it will help but we won’t know until we try.
— Michael Jones is a columnist and contributor for the Gaylord Herald Times. He can be reached at mfomike2@gmail.com.