If it bleeds, it leads…

Don’t get between network news and a good shooting. News channels love a good blood bath, and the shooting in Florida didn’t fail to deliver. I don’t know about you guys, but the coverage of this Parkland shooting made me sick to my fucking stomach. Those reporters don’t give a flying fuck about our kids or gun control. If anything I’m pretty sure reporters love the 2nd amendment cause it gives them great stories like this all the time cause death and fear is good for their ratings. I couldn’t watch the coverage for more than an hour before turning off the TV.

Then I looked on Twitter and people were already circling the wagons and getting ready for the political debate to come. I basically heard one of the following:

1) Now is not the time to talk about gun control, we should mourn those lost!

2) Now is exactly the time to talk about gun control! How many kids have to die before you get your head out of your ass?

Now we’re getting reports that someone had called the FBI tip line and tried to warn them about this the shooter over a month ago, and what did the feds do about it? Nothing. Zip. Nadda. Bupkiss. Sweet fuck all. They were too busy wasting millions of dollars and manpower to chance DNC conspiracy theories about Russia to even bother looking into a kid that was carrying guns to school and making threats about being a school shooter all-star. Seventeen people are dead, and the FBI couldn’t be bothered to get off their lazy asses and follow up. Heads should roll at the FBI over this…  a lot of them. I hope all 17 families sue them as well for not getting off their lazy asses.

Seventeen people are dead, and most of them are kids around my son’s age. If you think I’m pissed off about this… yes, yes I am. This was an unnecessary loss of life that could have been avoided. They were warned, and still no one could be bothered to do something about it. This is why people don’t trust the police anymore, because when asked to do something relevant to protecting the people, they’re out to fucking lunch.

Congress is no better, as the blood in on their hands too. Yet will they give a shit about it? Not a fucking chance. If 20+ elementary school kids in Sandy Hook didn’t change their mind, what make you think 15+ teens in Florida will? As long as their NRA payoffs keep clearing, they’ll never vote for reasonable gun legislation. Nothing will change, and several months from now (or sooner) we’ll have yet another mass killing and the cycle will start again. We had over 50 deaths in Vegas, and that didn’t change anything. This won’t either.

I had to watch the boys after school on Thursday, because the after school sitter was getting a wisdom tooth removed. My ex asked me not to watch the news cause she didn’t want our older son to see the gaud awful coverage of the shooting, and I can’t blame her for asking. Yet I also think that hiding what happened from our son is no productive either, so I sat Ethan down yesterday and talked to him about the shooting. I didn’t go into detail about it but gave him the basics and talked to him about it. I also know how to speak to my son about sensitive issues without triggering him, so I thought it was best to talk about it now and confront the issue, rather than hide from it.

I reminded my son that this kind of shootings are very rare up here because Canadians don’t have the right to bear AR-15 assault rifles or handguns… and that he shouldn’t have to worry about that everyday when he goes to school. But I did use this moment to tell him that if he hears anyone in school making threats about something like that, that he should tell either a teacher or myself or his mom so that we can take care of it. I took care of this issue cause I didn’t want him freaking out if other students or teachers were talking about it in class. I got a head of it and because of that he seemed to take it well and adhere to my advice.

I was happy to watch the boys that day, because after watching all the horrific coverage the day before, it felt good to see my boys the next day and give them both a big hug. A lot of the kids killed in Florida were Ethan’s age (14), and I can only imagine what those parents are going through. My world would fall apart very fast if I suddenly lost either of my boys, and this is why I am shocked that nothing changes in the US no matter how high the body count is. If this happened to my kid, I would go John Walsh on everyone’s ass. I would make it my life’s mission to change things, and not stop until it was done or I was six feet deep. I’m still waiting for one of these parents to step up and be the next John Walsh… but it hasn’t happened yet.

But I’ll ask anyway to those out there on OD who love their guns: how many more have to die to protect the 2nd amendment? Hundreds? Thousands? I got news for you fools, you already have gun control in the United States. You don’t have the right to bear bazookas or rocket launchers. You don’t have the right to bear mustard gas or napalm… to there are already things the populace are banned from buying. We need to put assault rifles back on that list. If you can’t agree on an all out ban, can we at least make an age minimum like… say… 21? If you can’t buy a drink, you can’t own an assault rifle. Sorry kids, them the breaks. 14 day back ground checks, and close all the gun shop loop holes. This is not asking a lot, and if it can stop just one school from getting turned into swiss cheese, then it will be worth it.

It’s hard to watch Parkland go through the motions, because I’ve seen this too many times already and everyone knows how much I hate reruns. Yet nothing is going to change. Congress and the NRA will sweep this and all other shootings under the rug. After the Sandy Hook shooting, I didn’t think there would a shooting that could crack that unholy alliance between politicians and gun runners. I want to see changes made, just forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

And just watch… two or three weeks from now  all the news channels will be back to wall to wall coverage of Trump/Russia bullshit. It will all go back to business as usual and it will be like the Parkland shooting never happened. Think I’m kidding? How much coverage have you seen of the Vegas shooting lately? That’s long gone. And in a few weeks so will this. Swept under the rug, and forgotten until the next shooting.

Like my favorite bad once said… Sad, but true.

Peter