Yesterday, Mother Nature blessed us with a spring day during winter. A brief respite. The chance to shed sweaters and coats and feel warm sunshine on bare arms.
Northwest Arkansas enjoyed temperatures in the mid-seventies.
John grilled steaks wrapped in bacon.
I searched for signs of spring. New life hides beneath dry leaves.
This all happened after I spoke at the University of Arkansas OLLI luncheon held at Bordino’s. OLLI invites an author to speak monthly. Lunch with an author, they call it. It was an honor for me. I’m always a little amazed when anyone shows up to hear me talk about my book.
So overall, it was an A+ sort of day for me. Even so, throughout all of it I couldn’t help but think about the parents who lost sons and daughters in another school shooting. This one in Florida.
Those families don’t care one iota about their tulips coming up from the soil. They don’t give a rat’s ass about reading my book or any book. They probably didn’t eat lunch yesterday. If they did, they certainly didn’t taste the food.
Today, winter has returned. We have a chance of freezing rain. I’m still thinking about the grieving parents. And I’m wondering what harm it would do to at least make it more difficult to purchase military-type weapons meant to fire rounds of ammo in seconds?
Guns don’t kill people. Evil people kill people. Sure. But common sense says an AR-15 semi-automatic weapon makes it a whole lot easier. That seems to be the weapon of choice in recent school shootings.
I’m willing to give up my right to buy one if it means the next wannabe school shooter can’t buy one either. What about you?
Today is a new day. Life goes on for the rest of us. I’ll be waiting and watching for spring and praying we come up with a solution to these problems our society faces. Anyone have a solution?
Grace Grits and Gardening
Farm. Food. Garden. Life.
[tweetthis]A spring day in winter. Another school shooting. #FloridaShooting [/tweetthis]
Musical Pairing:
Spring Will Be a Little Late This Year, Tivon Pennicott
Talya, I am almost in line to agree with you, but if a school shooter cannot get a gun, and he jumps in a truck and drives down a crowded street such as Beale street in Memphis or through the French Quater in New Orleans, or if he takes a rental truck and fills it with ferterlizer and drives up to a large building as in Ok City, how can we stop that? Evil and Satan are going to be with us until Jesus comes back again. I am not trying to be a pessimist because I am a gun owner. I believe in the 2nd amendment. We need to find some way to identify those with mental health problems and try to get them some help.
I agree there is no way to eliminate evil and crazy but we can do more. I believe in the right for you to own a gun. But why does anyone need the type weapon he bought?
Well there is no need to have an AR-15, but there are many of them out there. The automatic version of the AR-15 is the M-16. That has been the primary rifle of our military since Vietnam. I have owned a 30.06 rifle and 2 – 12 gauge shotguns before. If he had either of those guns, he probably could have killed about as many. When we do not have God in our schools, these situations will continue. That is very sad.
Talya, My thoughts are the same as yours. I think all military type weapons should be banned to civilians. The only exception would be law enforcement. I know it wouldn’t eliminate all of the problem but it might knock a dent in it.
Agreed!
I agree with you Talya.
I enjoyed our spring-like day, too, and am cheered by the green leaves pushing up through the cold earth. My heart aches for the parents and friends of the children killed in Florida. We always had hunting guns in our house when I was growing up, but our culture of violence has changed the way many people think of them. I’m with you, military style weapons are not necessary. I wish they would ban them. Also, I’m ready to see our entertainment industry show some responsibility instead of glamorizing gratuitous violence in movies, tv shows, music and video games, but I’m not going to hold my breath.