This post isn't a debate on gun laws. I'm honestly not familiar enough to debate that with valid points. What would help us have less shootings? Why countries like Japan have almost no shootings and we have so many? Why places in the US with more lax gun laws have less shootings supposedly that places that are more strict? Who knows. Not me. I'm a regular guy, and I feel it should be an option for regular guys to NOT have to know those things. What I do know is I'm raising my children in this world. I want to be able to take them to the movies or the mall or just out to get some ice cream without fear that the nutjob of the week that got his hands on a gun, legally or illegally, is going to shoot at us. Or worse.
As a father, I want to experience the moments with my children. You know, the special, silly moments where someone is making a funny face or a scuffed knee brings a tear. I want to be able to watch that movie and laugh alongside my boys. I want to feel like they are safe. I don't want to feel like I'm always needed to be on deck to KEEP them safe. With exit plans and strategies. With being able to spot the crazies just prior to them going crazy. Or, heaven forbid, as a human shield if need be. Therefore, I want to feel safe. If I don't feel like my children are safe, I will not feel safe, and instead of being IN those moments with my children, I'll be scanning for the crazies. Developing those exit strategies. Worried about the lives of my little guys.
After Thursday's shooting at another movie theater, this time in Lafayette, Louisiana during the movie Trainwreck, that feeling of safety is once again pushed further out of reach. No longer are we safe in schools, churches, theaters, or seemingly anywhere. So, James Holmes thought he was the Joker and shot the viewers of "The Dark Knight." Racist hatred led to the shootings in Charleston AT. A. CHURCH. Too much. It's too much when you can't go to church without fear of getting shot. It's too much when you can't go relax and tune out while watching a movie. Movies are about escapism...not needing to escape being shot at while watching them.
Trainwreck seems a movie without any particular cause that someone would crazily want to rally behind or against to the point of shooting. So, just a regular comedy. No super villain to pretend you are while shooting innocent people. So why? It is all senseless and there's no excuse.
But whatever the reason, whatever the fix, at the end of the day, I only know that it's happening on an almost weekly basis. People are afraid. I'm missing some of those silly moments with my kids because I'm busy planning ways for them not to be shot. I no longer go to movies at night because I assume that the crazies want a bigger audience and theaters aren't as full for the 1pm shows. Before the family movie we saw this past week, I had to explain to my 6 year old twins, as lightly as possible, what I needed them to do if anything went wrong during the movie. It wasn't necessary, thankfully, as it turned out. But, the point is, who knows? It's random. It's scary. And, I want them to be safe.
So, what do we do, world? How do we fix it? Because, it surely is currently broken.