Think Of The Children

I normally stay out of this sort of thing. I blog about personal matters, inane things, and the agony that is Twilight. I rarely dive into the clusterfuck that is politics. I don't talk about world events. I stay away from the news. But I can't do that this time.

They were children.

They were my baby sister's age.

After I got home from work the day of the Newtown shooting, after I'd done my Internet thing where I catch up on the world, after I read everything I could find about the shooting, my morbid imagination kicked into high gear. I imagined all the children who wouldn't get to grow up. I imagine all the mothers who would never hug their babies again. I imagined all the older siblings who would never move from annoyance to affection regarding their younger siblings. I imagined what would drive someone to do that. I imagined all those small, broken bodies.

I imagined Gracie's among them.

I cried for a good half-hour.

I called her, talked about stupid things; Pokémon cards, videogames, comics books, and T-shirts. I listened to her voice, and wished to God that I could have been there to hold her. I've been looking forward to going back to my parents' for the first time, just to see her, to hold her, to remind myself that my baby sister is still alive, that she's still with me, that her innocence hasn't been ruined.

And then today, I was on Facebook, and I saw something that just made me angry.

It was a picture comparing Obama to Hitler and Stalin for disarming the country. When I saw that, it hit me that, for some people, this isn't about the victims. It's not about what happened. It's not even about the killer. To them, it's all about the fact that their precious rights, that fuck only knows if they even goddamn use, are being ~taken away~.

I'm sorry, but no. This is not about Obama being a "socialist", or black, or whatever the fuck your problem with him is. This is not about your rights. This is not about your guns. This is not about the fact that you, personally, would use your gun to save a life. To sum up, THIS IS NOT ABOUT YOU. This is about a very disturbed man who did not receive the help he needed, and somehow got into an elementary school with three guns and now he, six other adults, and twenty children are DEAD.

I don't give two flying monkey fucks what your views on guns are. I honestly do not care. If your concern for your precious guns has overwhelmed any grief you feel for these lives cut far too short, your opinion has just dropped so far in my estimation that I cannot even fucking see it anymore. If you are more concerned for your guns than for the people who have suffered this horrible loss, go to hell. And if your guns are so important, than fucking take them with you.

Maggie Smith has spoken.