Gun control

I need to get my ass back to blogging, but first, a public service announcement:

I am a gun control advocate. Why wouldn't I be? I want people to wear seatbelts and not talk on their mobile phones when driving; I lock my doors at night; I want doctors who wield scalpels to be qualified.

The same with people who carry guns: I want background checks; I want tests in their competence regularly; I want them not only to be trained in how to use a gun safely and competently, but put under simulated conditions, so they know how to do it in the situations in which they'll need it.

But enough of how I feel - because I'm speaking from theory. Here's the best essay I have ever read on the subject of gun control, because it's by someone who is speaking from practice.

Meanwhile, my heart and prayers are with Newtown, CT, especially the parents, siblings, extended family and friends with empty arms and an empty place in their hearts, homes and circles.

Requiescant in pace to those who, five days ago, were planning Christmas with loved ones; expecting the tooth fairy and Santa Claus; discussing family, gifts and 'Do you think he LIKES me, though?' in the staff room; driving their parents and sibs crazy on the way into school; those who wondered, young and old, what 2013 would bring. 

They should have been hanging off the Gate of the Year, gap-toothed, grinning, chattering with excitement, making plans, holding the kids from leaning over too far, wondering, with anticipation, what the opening of the gate would bring.

Instead, for the most unnatural and horrific of reasons, they have been forced from their path to the gate and trodden into a different darkness, where the hand of G-d must lead them far too soon.

May they forever be sheltered under His wings.