I've been staying as far away from the specific details of the latest tragedy as I can. When I heard about it I burst into tears horrified, simply horrified for all those poor babies and then...I stayed as far away as possible. No news, no news channels, no NPR.
I just couldn't. I found that I couldn't deal with any additional details. I didn't want to know anything else. Some say this was sticking my head in the sand. I say thank God I'm not so desensitized about life and humanity where hearing about every detail of this horror isn't something I'm able to do without internalizing some major pain.
I just couldn't.
In the days which have followed, starting, unfortunately, on Friday, folks started a debate about gun control. All over Facebook people were posting about their right to bear arms being in the Constitution. Almost as an afterthought...the debate about mental illness awareness began as well as the details of the shooter's history of mental illness surfaced.
And some folks had drawn a line in the sand calling for either/or.
Better gun control.
Better assistance for mental illness.
My father was a gun enthusiast. You name it...he had it. I've very comfortable around guns because I've always known how to properly handle them. I was taught at an early age to break down, clean, oil, put back together and properly store several types of guns. He had a locked cabinet for his long barrel guns and a lock box for all but one of his handguns.
And he slept with one under his pillow.
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