Please think about this when you vote in the next national election.

“If guns don’t kill people, why do we give people

guns when they go to war? Why not just send people?”

- Ozzy Osbourne

When it was suggested that I write a BriefBlog about gun violence, I responded with… “I’m on it”. I started writing but had to pause because I could not see what I was writing for the tears filling my eyes. 

There have been 417 school shootings since the Columbine shooting in1999. This is according to The Washington Post, which updated this grim statistic on September 6 following a school shooting that occurred at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia, just north of Atlanta on Wednesday September 4. 

We do not know as we move through our daily lives who among us is mentally incapacitated enough to kill another person simply for the act of killing another person. The absurdity of what I just said is an example of the illogical thinking that results in the macabre act of murder. The point is you cannot always know someone’s state of mind so as to prevent such a tragedy. However, it can be made more difficult for them to obtain the weapons to commit these heinous acts of violence. 

We as a nation are in a state of political paralysis when it comes to the laws governing access to firearms. There is absolutely no logic in allowing unfettered access to automatic weapons that exist for one reason and one reason only:  the mass killing of other people in a scenario of war.

Please think about this when you vote in the next national election. Remember that one political party in this upcoming election has made it crystal clear that they have no intention of doing anything about the regulation of dangerous automatic weapons. 

Please vote your conscience.

Peace.

Al Obert

Radical Urge