It’s not so much the why, but the how…

I am saddened and shocked by the events that happened in Sutherland Springs, Texas this Sunday and in Las Vegas last month. Most of all I am sorry to say this list goes on and on. I have read articles, watched reports and seen footage of what happened. I have seen interviews with people who were there. I have also seen the heart wrenching photos of the victims screaming for their lost children with blood splattered all over their cowboy boots, unable to comprehend what just happened to them.

As a mother watching tragedies like this unfold on the news, it affects me on a level deeper than I knew possible, before I truly understood what it meant to care more for another person’s life than my own. It is an insurmountable feat to try and understand how a person, no matter their reasons, beliefs, affiliations, skin color and mental status could ever open fire on a crowd of thousands of people who are locked in between cement walls. To shooting round after round of ammunition on a group of people, as if they were animals lined up for slaughter is inconceivable.

In a recent press conference, I listened to Sarah Huckabee talk about how the president is a strong believer in the 2nd amendment, a supporter of the NRA, and how we cannot jump to rash decisions about gun control until the investigation of this tragedy is over.

First, we must know why a man chose to take his life, the life of 58 other people, and presumably intended to take many more as well.

Why a man chose to walk into a house of worship and shoot men, women and children. I am not a member of the government or the press and I haven’t been personally affected by this tragedy or any other gun related violence. I am just a mom trying to make sense of what is happening around me. And what I want to know from you, Sarah Huckabee, is why?

I want to know how this happened. How did a private citizen of the United States obtain that many guns? How did a man with a mental illness history obtain an automatic weapon? How was it that he was able to purchase that much ammunition? If my two-year-old son grabbed a knife off the counter and cut himself, while sitting in the ER, I would not ask myself why it was that he chose to reach for the knife, but I would ask how he was able to reach it in the first place. When a gunman walks into a school full of children and mercilessly kills as many of them as possible we can’t only ask why he did it, we need to ask how he got the guns, how he got the bullets, SO THAT IT DOESN’T HAPPEN AGAIN.

Because when people are dying by the dozen it is no longer time to only wonder why it is happening. There is a problem in this society and it needs to be addressed. But before we spend the next 10 years trying to figure out why this man, this one man, did what he did, let us first try and figure out how he did it. How did he get the guns? How did he buy bullets from so many stores when I can’t even buy cold medication from 2 pharmacies in the same week? We have the tools to fix this problem. We need to know how it happened and we, the American people, the government, even the NRA, we need to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

 

This writer has chosen to publish her piece anonymously. 

Author

Wannabe's are Guest Authors to BLUNTmoms. They might be one-hit wonders, or share a variety of posts with us. They "may" share their names with you, or they might write as "anonymous" but either way, they are sharing their stories and their opinions on our site, and for that we are grateful.

1 Comment

  1. Great article. So tired of having to ask these horrible questions. Thanks for sharing.

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