Tuesday, April 24, 2018

Gun Control v Gun Rights

Gun Control v Gun Rights


I am going to be honest with all of you right now on my thoughts of this matter.  Truth is that I don’t care one bit.  I am over it!  Here’s what I know.  Every week it seems there is some kind of mass shooting.  Everyone’s reaction is the exact same.  Democrats scream gun control, and Republicans scream gun rights.  The problem is that No One is doing Anything about it.  Nobody!



When can we all just be Americans?  There is a problem, and I am sick of hearing about a political party’s agenda.  I want to see some politicians that are more concerned about the lives of the American people than reelection.  What has happened to us?  Do you all remember what happened after 9/11?  We all came together. 

I have news for all of you, and that news is we all live in the same place.  I am 100% certain that Republicans and Democrats want to protect their own families.  It’s time that we all came together to protect each other’s families.  Let’s face it.  Most of us have political ideologies based on our parents, friends, and wherever we grew up.  If you had been born somewhere else with different parents, you would probably think something totally different.  So you grow up Democrat or Republican, and you grow up hearing exactly what that specific party believes.  You come to accept that as the gospel.  Guess what?  Neither side is perfect, and most of it is simply BS anyways.  It’s just something for us to cling to, complain about, and spend useless time on.

Meanwhile our children are getting murdered on a weekly basis.  Dang it, I am sick of hearing about the Middle East.  We have a problem right here.  Dang it we have war right here in America and it’s high time we call it what it is.  Here’s what a quick search on Wikipedia found: “A comprehensive report by USA Today tracked all mass killings from 2006 through 2017 in which the perpetrator willfully killed 4 or more people. For mass killings by firearm for instance, it found 271 incidents with a total of 1,358 victims.”

February 15th 2018 the “New York Times” published the following:

“When a gunman killed 20 first graders and six adults with an assault rifle at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, it rattled Newtown, Conn., and reverberated across the world. Since then, there have been at least 239 school shootings nationwide. In those episodes, 438 people were shot, 138 of whom were killed.

The data used here is from the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that began tracking school shootings in 2014, about a year after Sandy Hook.”

I don’t know about you, but I have three children.  I don’t want any of them to have to worry about this, and I want to protect them.  That’s my job, but I can’t get any help from my government.  If our government’s job isn’t to protect our children, what is their job?  That’s the dang question right now.

Here’s what I know.  Americans aren’t going to turn their guns over to the government.  Plus there are over 300 million guns in America that we know about.  Lord only knows how many guns that are hear illegally.  So, you are not going to be able to collect all of those anytime soon. 

Here’s a couple of things that seems to be common sense:

1.  Let’s reinforce the laws we have.  Before we talk new legislation regarding guns, let’s handle what we have.  Otherwise we can pass some more laws that no one will adhere to.

2.  Then we can talk about new laws that might help.

3.  Parents or anyone else that supplies someone with a weapon that is used for a shooting should be held just as liable.  I am mainly talking about the parent of the Waffle House shooter, but this goes for anyone that does this. 

4.  If someone is deemed mentally unfit, they simply can’t have a weapon.  There is no time for political correctness on this one. 


Other than this, I have no idea.  I want to see the Democrats and Republicans sit down together and figure this out.  I don’t want to hear about immigration, Russia, or anything else until this is figured out.  Look men and women of Congress and the Senate, it’s time to put your differences aside.  I just want you to start making some progress.  I don’t want to hear any statements or empty promises.  I want to see results. 

I am not just talking about guns because look what happened in Toronto today.  I have several friends up there, and I was scared to death when I heard the news.  Look who cares what religion, race, or belief someone has.  The beautiful thing is that if I don’t like what someone else believes, I don’t have to believe it.  I can believe whatever I want, and I don’t have to hate the person who believes opposite. 



Thanks to my career, I have friends from all over the world.  I have Muslim friends.  I have friends from Iran, Russia, and Egypt to name a few.  I’m a Christian, and I love Christ with all my heart.  No one has to believe like me for me to respect and love them. 

I get it.  I know the world is flawed and filled with sin.  I know that the world will never be perfect not even close, but we can all try to make it a little better.  We can listen and learn from each other.  If we really try to put our heads together, we can create change. 

This is my plea to all of you.  Can we stop identifying with some political ideology and simply start identifying as a human being on planet earth?  Our children depend on us to protect them.  Let’s come together to do just that.

End rant,



Coach Travis Mash

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