I am not a very political person, nor do I consider myself extremely opinionated on many controversial issues.  But in light of the terrible tragedy in Oregon, I have decided to jump off the fence.  I have a bit of redneck in me, and I completely understand and enjoy the adrenaline rush you get when you shoot a gun, especially when you hit a clay pigeon or a bottle off in the distance.  

For 2 years, I have been living in a country that suffered a similar tragedy ONE time in its history, and instead of waiting around, arguing back and forth, making and taking favors, the Australian politicians united and decided that ONE time was too many.  And there was no way they were going to sit back and watch while another preventable nightmare struck its innocent citizens.  So they started over.  They made EVERYBODY turn in their guns.  Now this wasn’t to say that a sane person with a clear background who enjoys hunting for sport or food was not going to be allowed to own another gun.  It simply made it harder to get one.  I know people here in Australia who have a gun.  They have to keep it locked in a safe where ONLY the authorized individual knows the code.  And they do random checks to make sure that nobody else in the household knows the code.  Would you believe that in 2 years, I have never once felt unsafe?  I didn’t realize this until this week, when I really gave it some thought.  I cannot say the same about how I feel back home in the states.  Now it isn’t as bad as most Australians think it must be like in the U.S.  It isn’t that I never feel safe in the states – it isn’t quite that bad.  But there are definitely places that I wouldn’t go.  Heck, I went to university at a school where there was no way I would walk past the eastern edge of campus for fear of being the victim of a drive by.

Yes, there are still crazy people here.  There are crazy people in every society.  You can’t really fix crazy, but you can stop crazy people from having access to something that can kill people. Yes, they still find a way to let out their craziness and hurt others.  About once a week we hear about a crazy person that macheted someone.  But at least with a machete, you have a fighting chance.  Your enemy isn’t sitting 100 meters away looking through a gun sight.  Think about it.  In the U.S., it is a daily occurrence to hear about a random shooting.  It is so common that you kind of become immune to hearing about it on the evening news.  Is that the kind of world we want to live in?  And raise our children in?

I remember vividly a day when I was taking MBA classes at the University of Northern Iowa.  We were about halfway through an evening Business Strategy course, and one of the guys in the class got a text message letting him know that a suspected gunman was allegedly heading to the UNI campus after an altercation with his girlfriend.  I felt trapped.  I felt so scared.  My ears were tuned in to noises in the hallway, praying that the door handle wouldn’t click and open.  I was sitting in the back of the room, farthest from the door, between an ultimate fighter and an ex-army guy, so I thought if someone came through the door I was probably in the safest place, all things considered.  Not that we wanted to venture out of the room, but we were not allowed to leave the classroom until the suspect was detained.  I was conflicted between wanting to run to my car and get the heck off campus, vs staying where I was – at least there was a door sort of slowing him down.  Scariest night of my life.  Amazingly, the professor remained calm and tried to continue on through the lecture, likely to slow down any panic attacks.  I don’t remember a single word she said that day, couldn’t tell you what the lecture was about.  But I can tell you that I never want to feel that way ever again.  And I certainly don’t want my kids to feel that way.  Ever.  

I should hope that our Anerican politicians could come up with a slightly better wording to amend the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution, but perhaps something like this would be an improvement:

“A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms {as long as you aren’t crazy}, shall not be infringed.”

The Aussies have proven that a country can fix the root cause of a huge problem, and live in peace…and still have the freedom to own a gun ONLY if there is a good reason to have one, and a good, clean background check.  They didn’t take away a freedom.  Quite the opposite – as people now have the freedom to enjoy their lives without unnecessary fear.  Well done, mates.  Well done.