Thursday, May 29, 2014

Three Words.

It really is that simple. Not One More. There is no other side to this.

A photo from our last summer at UCSB - We Stand With You

On Friday night a  22 year old student went on a rampage and killed six students and injured 13 in the Isla Vista at the University of California, Santa Barbara. For the past ten summers, we have stayed at the UCSB with six other families. In Isla Vista, right where the killings took place. How can anyone talk about the "right" to have a gun? We don't want to hear it. No More Guns.

My friend Katie wrote this piece about the absolute devastation just one gun can wreck in a family: "My father took his life with a rifle...My father who danced with me at my wedding and held my newborn sons with his calloused hands."

Recently we went to dinner at a friend's house down the road in Oakland. Outside were flowers and photos of a very handsome young football player. An 18 year, a wonderful kid according to my friends, he had worked for them when he was younger, doing yard work and chores around the house. He had been shot dead a few days beforehand by one of his best friends, right there on the footpath. They were having an argument about a girlfriend and in the heat of the moment his friend pulled out a gun and shot him point blank. The young man's mother stands there every day weeping, trying to make sense of the senseless.

Richard Martinez, the heartbroken father of young Christopher Michaels-Martinez, who was slain in the Isla Vista rampage said, “I don’t care about your sympathy. I don’t give a shit that you feel sorry for me. Get to work and do something. I’ll tell the president the same thing if he calls me. Getting a call from a politician doesn’t impress me.... Today, I’m going to ask every person I can find to send a postcard to every politician they can think of with three words on it: Not one more.”

17 comments:

  1. It is so pathetic how America feels the needs for guns, acting like the old west all over the damn place. No other 1st world country has such lax laws and they all do just fine.

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    1. Thought The Onion headlines says it all,

      No Way to Prevent This Says Only Nation Where THis Regularly Happens.
      http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/05/28/the-onion-ucsb-shooting_n_5403643.html

      also that headlines have to say "recent shootings"

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  2. Well said. Thank you. Not One More.

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  3. I heard Richard Martinez on the radio this evening and I burst into tears for the raw emotion and the utter sheer pain he is experiencing losing his wonderful son. I can't believe it.
    Living in Canada the only people I know who own guns are hunters, the law and safety around the storing of the guns etc is very strict and the hunting lifestyle holds a lot of respect for guns. I find guns really frightening, they are tools for instant killing after all.

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  4. I am so glad that Australia and New Zealand do not have an NRA equivalent they are very scary!!

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  5. Actually he stabbed his 2 roommates to death, plus another guy, and killed 2 with his car. The problem isn't what he used to kill. You can give up all your guns as much as you want and it won't solve this. He was mentally insane. He'd been in therapy for most of his life and was prescribed antipsychotic medication, which he simply decided not to take. You can't ban mental illness and no amount of self-righteous indignation at basic human rights will stop people from going insane. Jack the Ripper had no guns, but he slaughtered plenty of people without any difficulty even so. Because he was insane. Just like this guy was.

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    Replies
    1. Hi there, Statistics show every year that per capita there are more altercations in the UK than in the US, but in the UK those altercations result in far fewer deaths. The difference is guns. I've heard of many many incidents here where someone was shot dead in a brief moment of passion or anger rather than insanity.

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  6. We will never be rid of people with evil intentions the best we can do is to make hard for them to get such powerfully efficient weapons. Parents for not one more take a stand.

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  7. Jody thanks for this. It's something I really care so much about and want more than anything to help change in this country. How the NRA could have such a chokehold on us astounds. We slowly are waking up,but it's mothers like you and I and every person who can needs to share, Facebook and say what we want to get this fixed. Bless that father for trying to do something to really make a change not words. My heart goes out to those families and I was thinking of you and that trip when i heard it too. x

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  8. Totally agree. US gun laws really need changing.

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  9. In the UK even the police don't carry guns (except in extreme circumstances), I am not sure what argument anyone can have for allowing gun ownership. In countries where they are controlled, this kind of event is a once in a decade occurrence and usually the culprit is a member of a gun club (ie simply has access to guns and therefore opportunity).
    It is a terrible thing to happen, but why to the decision-makers never learn?

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    Replies
    1. Hi Alexandra, all the surveys for years have said that police approaching a situation holding a gun only serves to escalate that situation. Of course here in Oakland (where there are a couple of recent cases of kids held up at gunpoint on their way home!!!) it would be impossible to recruit anyone. Banning all guns is the answer. I can't stand that argument that the NRA have "the right to bear arms." Down in San Jose they paid people to turn in their guns and they got a barn-load of them, but many more are out there.

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