A generational response to gun violence

The Santa Fe High School shooting occurred only hours from my home and marks the second nationally recognized massacre to occur near me of recent (The first was the "Texas Church" shooting in the small town of Sutherland Springs).  I posted on Facebook my very real consideration for home schooling my son. "I don't take my child to dangerous environments and its starting to feel like schools are a hub for violence" I replied to my singular protester. The rest of the responses were overwhelmingly in agreement. My fellow mommy community seemed to share the same fears and were also seriously considering home schooling as a way to keep their children safe. And why wouldn't they. Today is May 19th and there have been 22 mass shootings.... No, not this year... this MONTH alone! (SOURCE)

77 year old Grandmother

This morning, I was meeting with my Grandmother who was born in 1941. She is an avid reader but doesn't care much for following the news. I regularly update her on major events and today was no different. We talked about the royal wedding and the Santa Fe shooting, but the shooting absolutely shocked her. Her face was of utter disbelief and she almost started to cry. I mentioned it almost like a grocery shopping list reading and realized in that moment she was about to cry. I imagine this is how I used to feel back in 1999 when school shootings felt unthinkable.

I grew up with guns. Our family is in complete support of gun ownership. We spent our falls hunting, our summers target shooting and some of our most sentimental family heirlooms included my Grandfather's rifles. Guns were something you respected, used responsibly, and kept secure. Upon telling my Grandma about the Santa Fe shooting, she was so confused as how one person could shoot that many people so quickly. I then realized that in hearing this story, my grandmother was picturing a student using a hunting rifle to commit these crimes. And why wouldn't she? That is how I grew up. That was the original purpose of the 2nd amendment. To allow families to bear arms in support of their own personal protection, protest and survival. It was not designed to protect an individual's right to collect high magazine sporting rifles as a matter of hobby or even worse, arm their plan for mass assault.

This should not be the last of our innocence.

When I advised my grandmother that now you can buy rifles that have a high magazine capacity and are semi automatic, she looked at me like the younger generation was completely out of their mind. And we are. That look was well deserved.

"I always felt, eventually it was going to happen here too" Paige Curry (17), a Santa Fe Shooting Survivor explained expectantly of the day's massacre (SOURCE).

We have allowed this to happen to our children. They are essentially expectant of the possibility of a school shooting with about the same apathy as we may have felt about car accidents growing up. Guilty, I find myself scrolling through Facebook and mass casualty usually only gets a small portion of my attention as I find the next video of a friend's newly crawling baby. I too have apathy. My heart goes out to Paige Curry, the Santa Fe families, and all of our youth. My son was born in 2015. What will he say? What will he think about gun violence? Is this really what we want normalized for our children? I want him to have the same innocence as my Grandmother and be raised with the same respect and boundaries for firearms as me.

Enjoying the bounty of Spring in Texas

To learn more about gun control policy options and opinions visit: https://www.politico.com/story/2018/02/28/gun-control-polling-parkland-430099