Stay Strong, Lafayette

It's Thursday night.  It's summer.  It's too hot to stay inside and watch television.  Besides, there's nothing but reruns on, anyway.  Outside, it's too humid to tackle yardwork or go for a walk in the park.  Maybe hitting up a popular movie is the ticket.  A valid excuse to get out and socialize with friends and share a laugh or two.

You fight traffic, then struggle to find parking near the theater.  Pay for a ticket, buy popcorn and a soda, before settling in to watch the previews.  Your only concern is that no one taller than you sits in the seat in front of you and that no one plays with their phone during the movie.

It was a little over three years ago that there was a violent incident at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado.  It was a midnight showing of the last Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, so when a man appeared in the darkness dressed in tactical clothing, patrons thought it was a part of the show.  A special added treat to the movie's premiere.  Delight was quickly replaced by panic when the assailant opened fire on the crowd.  In the aftermath, twelve were dead and seventy more were injured.  The gunman was picked up outside the theater by police.  Subsequently, this past week, on July 20th, 2015, he was found guilty of twenty-four (24) counts of first-degree murder and one-hundred-forty  (140) counts of attempted first-degree murder.  Sentencing at the time of this composition has yet to be announced.  I believe Colorado has the Death Penalty and it'd do everyone involved a favour if the guilty party is promptly executed.  That's my opinion, anyway.

Three years has passed and I guess, we as a whole have become relaxed and complacent, once more.  Relaxing in our belief that the incident in Aurora three years ago, was a fluke.  A single event that wouldn't or couldn't be repeated.  Sadly, this is not the case.  Just as we once believed the Colombine High School shooting to be a one-time incident, we've sadly had many more in the fifteen-plus years since.  It is with great disappointment and sadness that I discovered that once again, a gunman has entered a movie theater and taken it upon himself to play God.

This time it is a movie theater in Lafayette, Louisiana.  Twenty minutes into "Trainwreck", the new Judd Apatow comedy starring Amy Schumer, a lone gunman began shooting into the crowd.  It's reported that of the one hundred plus people in the theater, three have died, including the gunman from a self inflicted gun shot, and seven more injured.  Thankfully, the number of dead and wounded isn't comparable to the tragedy in Colorado, but even if there is one person is injured, that's one too many.

The fact that this asshole, a 58 year old man, according to news reports, killed himself, begs the question, why did he not just kill himself without killing others?  Of all the reasons to desire historical recognition, it'll never make sense to me why these insane people need to do so with such havoc.  Survivors of the tragedy in Lafayette, as well as those in Aurora, Colorado, are affected, too.  While they don't have an imperfection blemish on their skin, the emotional baggage that is associated with an event like this, is equally burdening.  Survivor's guilt.

Very little has been shared with the media regarding the gunman in tonight's shooting.  Authorities say that he did have some criminal history, but the incidents were from some time ago.  Whether he was convicted of a violent crime yesterday or forty years ago, the fact that he had a criminal record at all, should have predicated that he not be in possession of a firearm ever again.

With the Presidential race beginning to pick up speed, the subject that should be at the forefront of everyone's platform is Gun Control.  It's heinous and offensive how many violent acts occur on a daily basis in the U.S., involving firearms.  People shooting people over $20 or the colour of their shirt or the colour of their skin.  It's insanity.  We have the audacity to claim ourselves to be civil, yet act so barbaric.  It leaves me scratching my head.

Even here at home, in Canada, where we do have gun control, there's still an uprising in gun-related crime.  While my hometown, Saskatoon (Saskatchewan), has never been free of crime, I have noticed a scary increase in gun-related crimes.  It's making me more and more fearful to leave the house to go to the corner store.  That being said, it's not as bad as the epidemic that plagues the United States.  Gun Control works.  Trust me.  You just need to go at it in an intelligent manner.

The second amendment of the United States Constitution protects the rights of all Americans to keep and bear arms.  This amendment was adopted on December 15th, 1791, two-hundred and twenty-four years ago, when the average man possessed a single shot musket that required to be loaded one lead ball at a time.  I'm sure that if the founding father's had possessed the forethought of there ever being guns like the AR-15 or AK-47 or even the Tec 9, just to name a few, I'm sure they would have erased that amendment or at least worded it differently.

Donald Trump has been in the news a lot, lately, mostly due to his negative and borderline insane comments in his bid for the Presidential nomination.  The man is clearly nuts, but deep down, I believe he's equally as intelligent.  You can't become a billionaire by being a complete idiot.  Idiocy usually tends to come after the fact.  That withstanding, I'd be interested in what he has to say about the necessity for Gun Control.  He doesn't strike me as the type to be afraid of anyone, even the NRA.

In the aftermath of the movie theater shooting, Train Wreck star, Amy Schumer sent a comforting message via Twitter: My heart is broken and all my thoughts and prayers are with everyone in Louisiana. The world shares that sentiment, sending positive thoughts to all those affected by this tragedy, tonight.

Babies Shooting Guns

I had an Atari 2600 when I was a kid.  Other kids poked fun at it's archaic technology, which failed considerably to the tech that their video game systems provided.  Ironically, as cheap and unfulfilling as the tech was then, it's greatly sought after today.  It's my belief, that there's a certain charm that accommodates the simplicity of the times.  An innocence that we've lost and are now in desperate search of.  The flash and speed of today's video games are awesome and heart-pounding, but sometimes it's nice to sit back for a relaxing game of Pong.  In simpler terms, going to the latest popular restaurant for an evening of gourmet dining is fantastic, but it's more enjoyable to settle down for some of grandma's apple pie and iced tea.

I had cap guns as a child.  I reveled in the smell of spent caps burning from the toy handgun after firing off a barrage of paper caps at imaginary foes.  Later on, I'd be gifted a plastic machine gun that you'd cock back the "firing mechanism" and it'd sound off a string of violent tones, like no other.  It even had a small red protruding mass at the end of the barrel to simulate fire.  It was a cool toy and I may even still have that kicking around somewhere in my basement, I think with my Star Wars figures.  Imagination was the key to fun playtime.

Today, it seems, imagination isn't enough.  Actually, when looked into deeper, I think kids who use an imagination are deemed defective, having some kind of mental deficiency that "professionals" need to aggressively address with mind-numbing medication.  I believe they've reassigned "imagination" as "Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)"  Today, it seems that kids need more mental stimulation.  To be more hands on.  Case and point;  That poor nine year old girl last week who mistakenly shot her shooting instructor with an uzi.

Since then, there's been a nationwide debate on whether it's acceptable for a small child to be handling any kind of weaponry, let alone a freakin' uzi.  Gun freaks are standing firm that children need to learn how to use such weapons, insisting that the American Constitution decrees it so.  Being Canadian, I don't know exactly what all the Amendments decree or not, but given the advancement in the 227 years since it's inception, I'm sure some of the original amendments would be up for interpretation.  That being said, because I AM Canadian, chances are I have a greater handle on the subject than most Americans.  The Bill of Rights was enacted between 1787 and 1789, which was a completely different era.  The Second Amendment, the Right to Bear Arms, wasn't added until 1791 and at that time, everyone had single shot muskets.  I'm sure the Founding Fathers would be whistling a different tune today, if they came across the menagerie of mechanized destruction available to their citizens.  I'm sure they'd be busting out the Thesaurus and wording the amendment differently, so as not to be misconstrued by the borderline insane.  For sure, they wouldn't want today's mismanaged youth getting a hold of such weapons.

I've said it before and I will happily repeat this.  Unless there's a zombie apocalypse, there's really no need for ANY child to be picking up and firing off an assault weapon.  To do so, is completely insane.  We don't allow children to vote until the age of 18, because they're not educated enough to make an important decision like choosing the leader of the free world.  Children are not allowed to operate a motor vehicle until the age of 16, because it's believed their not coordinated enough to operate a sophisticated machine like a Buick or Toyota.  Yet, people believe a f*cking 9-year old girl should be intelligent and coordinated enough to proficiently operate an assault weapon..?  On Twitter this morning I came across a conversation between Anderson Cooper (@AC360) and Hollywood director, Judd Apatow (@JuddApatow), where the "This is 40" director argued that his "large for her age" six-year old shouldn't be discriminated against if she wishes to shoot a machine gun.  I hope he's only kidding, but if he's not, I hope his wife, Leslie Mann, slaps some sense into his head.

I know parents aren't in any hurry to have their kids grow up, and I believe that shooting real guns, will steal away their innocence, just as tragically as Father O'Brien's one-on-one tutoring sessions with little Billy after Sunday school.  As a kid, I liked the smell of freshly fired off paper cap gun strips.  So much so, that I would forgo the cap gun, spreading out the roll and using my dad's hammer to pop them off.  I doubt little Susie likes the air of GSR on her clothes after rattling out 50 rounds of 9mm shells.

As an adult, at my father's urging, I picked up a .22 rifle and shot a pigeon that was roosted in the old barn on the farm where I grew up.  I did not enjoy that experience, nor the guilt that I felt following it.  Another experience I had with a hand gun, was when I rung a door bell in Edmonton, Alberta.  The resident had been the victim of home invasion twice before and no longer took chances when a stranger rang his bell.  I was greeted with the largest barrel I've ever laid eyes on, pointed straight at me, aimed between my eyes.  The image to this day, still gives me debilitating shivers and nightmares.  Movies and video games have provided most of us with a fractured reality of what exactly these devices are and the reality of their destruction, completely disregarding the innocence that is lost in the process.

Given all the gun violence and school shootings in recent years, I can't wrap my head around the concept that "intelligent" people can't (or won't) support some kind of gun restriction or control to help regulate semi-automatic assault weapons.  It's inexplicable to me that their answer to gun violence is more guns.  And it blows my mind that they want their babies shooting right along side of them.

The Walking Dead is an amazing program.  I love every episode and never miss a single week, when it's on.  Have you noticed it takes place in the deep south?  I reckon it's because of the backward thinking of the rednecks.  Backward thinking like marrying your cousins and letting your pre-schoolers carry Mac-10 sub-machine guns in their backpacks. If there's a zombie outbreak in America, it's going to be a smorgasbord.  Nobody seems to be using their brains for much anyway.

Two hundred and twenty-seven years since the inception of the Bill of Rights...  How do we know the Founding Father's just wanted people to have the option to wear shirts without sleeves?  It's up for interpretation.