Gun-crazy society must change
It is with great sadness that I feel compelled to write about another school shooting, this time the worst (with the exception of Virginia Tech) in U.S. history, killing at least 27 innocent people, mainly little school children. When is this country going to wake up and smell the smoking guns in the classrooms?
My parents were public school teachers. My husband has been a college professor. I taught for 25 years in colleges and universities. The day one of my students came to me and told me she wanted to shoot me because I gave her a grade that she was "not happy about" is the day I decided to resign my teaching post at a private school in Louisville, Kentucky. Unfortunately, the school did not expel the student, but told me to avoid her as much as I could. That was comforting to know that the school favored her money for tuition over a need for my life as a teacher.
When we moved back to the Northwest a few years later, I was on my way to Costco in Spokane one day, sitting in traffic on Francis, when I looked out my passenger side window, and in my peripheral vision, I saw an automatic rifle aimed at my head, by a nice looking young couple, probably trying to get into a gang. Thank God I had the wisdom to pull forward as a voice told me, "out of harm's way." When I reported it to the police, as an artist I could have drawn for them exactly what this young couple looked like, what they wore, the colors and styles of their clothing, but because I could not see the license number to report because their car was beside me, the Spokane police blew me off. I have never been so frightened in all my life, but not protected by those whose salary I paid in the form of taxes, from people who have illegal gun possession.
If you have never been on the other end of an assumed loaded gun pointed at you, you cannot possibly identify with the utter terror of that instant. Your vision becomes a loaded camera lens, never, ever forgetting what that moment looked like. Your mind is fired up to strategize a way out of the situation. Adrenaline is pumping through your body as if you have just started a NASCAR engine. Your mouth goes dry, and your heart pounds like a drum in your head. I was lucky - I survived. I was able to pull up close to the car in front of me and the would-be shooter was stuck in his lane out of range. But you NEVER forget the terror you felt, and it takes months, if not years, to finally lay most of the memory aside so that you can function normally.
So it is with that memory of the terror I felt in both my near shooting experiences, that I write of the utter horror those innocent little children, the age of my grandchildren in New Jersey, and their teacher, and the mother of the young man who shot her, must have felt at the moment just before their deaths. The shooter's mother did not deserve it, those little children did not deserve it, the administrators and teachers who died did not deserve it. The other children in the school did not deserve to hear the gunfire shots ringing out, the screams of their classmates and friends, and then to have to walk by the carnage with their eyes closed, hanging onto each other's shoulders to get to the safety of their parents' arms.
Why on Earth is this country still having this conversation about guns being available to those who should not have access to them? When are we going to stop the NRA from hog-tying Congress, and demand each and every member of Congress sit down and finally come to the conclusion that, "Enough is Enough?" They were elected to protect me and others from this kind of violence. Why aren't they doing their job?
Don't get me wrong, I am not against deer hunters or antique gun collectors. I am not against those who have the right to own a gun by virtue of having legal background checks completed, and those guns registered properly. I do, however, have a huge problem with assault rifles, hand guns, and any other gun purchases which are outside the bounds of human decency. I have a real problem with the loopholes that we tolerate by gun store owners who allow guns to be purchased illegally. I have a real problem with walking into stores in the state of Idaho allowing loaded guns in a holster to be carried by their owners, while their trucks are plastered with signs boasting their love of and protection by Jesus Christ in the next life! How about in the here and now?
I am sick and tired of this proclaimed "One Nation Under God" using the old excuse that we have the right to bear arms, even if that means shooting school children? God does not give us that right, or privilege, and I can't imagine that the writers of our Constitution and the Second Amendment could ever have conceived of the horror that our present day school children, or families of abusers, or spouses who have been killed by deranged partners, have endured. There, but by the grace of God, go I.
Some would tell me that I should learn to use a gun to protect myself. Do I want to spend the rest of my life in prison because I misjudged someone's intentions and pulled a trigger too soon? No thank you! I couldn't live with that on my mind.
As a woman married to a minister, a woman who is a mother and a grandmother now, I am appalled that we as a nation are so caught up in our own "rights" to bear arms that we forget about the "rights" of others to live a normal, healthy life free from the threat of having our children or grandchildren shot when they are pursuing an education. This country has a lot of soul searching to do, and I hope it begins today. With you, and with me.
God forgive us for our lack of respect for others' lives and beliefs, and our stubborn foolishness to cling to guns to make us feel good about ourselves.
Kathleen Parrish Peterson is a local artist and a woman married to a minister.