Fact of Life

J.D. Vance, the moronic MAGAt candidate for Vice President of the United States, in the wake of another school house slaughter says that school shootings are a “fact of life.” Slightly different and thoroughly indifferent to the issue, his comments are in the same vein as previous ones from the decaying convicted felon/child rapist Donald Trump, when he says that we just have to “get over it” when it comes to gun violence.

Here’s a fact. We’ve allowed this to become a fact of life. We’ve put targets on the backs of our kids each time we let the politicians cave to the gun lobby in the supposed service of the second amendment to the constitution. Vance, in his weird way of pretending to appear honest, can’t say the words that your kid’s life is worthless and worth less when it compares to the rights of gun owners, but that’s what he’s saying.

I’ve discussed this in a thousand ways in thousands of words. Others have too. But talk is cheap when compared to money. And there is always too much talk and always more money. The talk of hardening schools and giving teachers guns, etc… is not only a mythical excuse borne out of stupidity, but it is bullshit blanket meant to hide your head under when you don’t want to solve an obvious problem. If you ignore the leak in your roof long enough, you’ll pay for it down the road.

Here’s a fact. The shooter always wins. Even if the shot doesn’t hit home. Even if the shooter is taken down. The shooter always wins. That’s a fact. Of life and death. I’m surprised we haven’t seen a rise of businesses offering suits of armor for school children. It’s probably the next step. That would be as foolish as the bullet proof backpacks some parents have protected the books their kids can no longer read.

A shot may not kill, but it will scar in ways you can’t imagine if you haven’t been shot at.

Fact: unless you have a gun trained on a potential shooter and are faster to the trigger, any method of stopping a shot is going to fail. You could be packing. You could have an arsenal in your house. You could surround a former president with secret service and other law enforcement protection, competent or incompetent as they may be. A determined shooter will always get off the shot. Unless you don’t allow any guns anywhere close to the event.

In the space between this word and the next, a shooter will win even if he/she doesn’t kill.

The myths have been thoroughly shot through but they won’t die. They linger like old wounds because of a fear greater than that of a parent sending their child to school. The fear that we’ve brought this curse on our children ourselves and we can see no way to solve the problem beyond taking away the guns.

That’s a fact of life.

You can find more of my writings on a variety of topics on Medium at this link, including in the publications Ellemeno and Rome. I can also be found on social media under my name as above.