Of Band-aids, Guns, Preschoolers and Politicians
From time to time my four year old will come running to me in obvious pain and crying. She’s not looking for real medical attention of any kind—there often is no blood involved. Nor, does she want daddy to simply kiss her boo boo or give her a big, tight hug. As her daddy I know what gives her the most comfort in these situations. She needs a band-aid.
Now, mind you, the band-aid is not covering a real wound…just a perceived wound in the mind of a preschooler. Nothing…and I do mean nothing…relieves her stress in these situations better or faster than a band-aid expertly applied.
And sometimes one is not enough. When I see she is still fighting back the tears after sporting a freshly applied band-aid, I will occasionally grab one more…and another…and another. You see, when a problem continues to persist I’ve learned that applying multiple band-aids on one tiny leg will eventually cause us both to break out in laughter. Voilà! Problem solved.
Right now gun owners are dealing with lots of band-aids. Oh, these aren’t band-aids to help heal any emergent medical problem we have as a group. Nope, they are band-aids some folks believe are necessary to solve a societal problem through restrictive gun legislation. Unfortunately, a series of evil events have occurred in our world and a faction of lawmakers, along with the media, have devised their own form of a band-aid approach.
Now, I’m certainly not here to suggest we shouldn’t learn from and try to prevent future tragedies in our society. Quite the contrary. It’s the manner in how we react that displays if we deal with it like a 50 year old, or a four year old. One expects that an adult has a certain maturity level suggesting a logical and well-thought out response. A young child? Well, of course they will be more reactionary looking for whatever gives some immediate resolution to a perceived terrible problem.
Let’s be honest. At no other time in American history has the anti-gun movement felt so emboldened and powerful as they do right now. They feel this is their time. High emotions are being stoked on a daily basis with biased news reporting. The enemy isn’t the criminal who commits these cowardly acts…it is the gun…THE GUN I tell you! The gun is ALWAYS the problem. Remove the gun and…Voilà! The problem magically will go away.
Yeah, it will work just like that…won’t it? Maybe in the mind of a small child who wants some immediate action, but not for an advanced society who should be mature enough to know far better.
In the days and weeks to come this blog will expose how gun control is a big hoax being perpetrated by folks who want to take away our freedoms. Folks, it has nothing to do with protecting children in some school classroom or preventing another tragedy in some movie theater. Indeed, this is about a group of politicians who want to take action to appease the whims of their voter base. THEY WANT TO GET RE-ELECTED and they see restrictions on our guns as their first-class ticket to enabling political longevity.
How wrong they are. I’m not about to tell my four-year old that putting a band-aid on an imaginary owie is a silly thing to do. But I sure as hell will tell my politicians how taking a band-aid approach in dealing with gun violence is not the proper American thing to be doing. Any solution that restricts my long-standing, God-given freedom as an American is simply juvenile and should be treated as such.
©2013 Jim Braaten. All Rights Reserved. No Reproduction without Prior Permission.