I blame you.
When someone shot up a school full of kids, and we wanted to take steps to take guns out of circulation, you wouldn’t let us. You said your sacred right to bear arms was more important than the lives of schoolchildren, and you said it right to the faces of those kids’ parents.
When someone shot up a theater full of moviegoers, and we wanted to take steps to take guns out of circulation. you wouldn’t let us. You said that the only thing that could have stopped the shooter was a Good Guy With a Gun. You said it excitedly, as though you wished you were there. The theater was full of panic and terror and smoke, but you’re sure that you would have taken out the threat with steady hands and no stray bullets.
And when it happened again at a church, you told the same story. You suggested that church was a reasonable place to start openly carrying guns, just in case.
When someone shot up a mall full of shoppers, and the police responded, innocent bystanders got caught in the crossfire and were accidentally shot by police. When we pointed out that more guns meant more stray bullets, and we tried to take those guns out of circulation, you wouldn’t let us. The police never would have fired if the shooter wasn’t there in the first place, you said, so all of the people shot by police were added to the shooter’s murder charges. The books are kept clean that way, but the lives of the victims’ families won’t be.
Now someone shot up a gay club, during Pride. We were unable to keep an assault rifle out of his hands (even though he was on the terror watch list!) because to you that sounded too close to keeping one out of your hands, so you stopped us. You stopped us because only a Good Guy with a Gun could stop a shooter. But here we are, and after all your macho posturing about stopping shooters, you did nothing. Instead, you said horrible things. When you learned Pulse was a gay club, you said he was doing God’s work. And when you learned he was Muslim, you blamed all Muslims.
And so I blame you, Good Guy with a Gun. I blame you for all of it. America is a war zone, and it is your fault. We can’t keep guns away from terror suspects. We can’t keep them away from the dangerously mentally ill. We can’t keep them away from violent felons. We can’t keep them away from kids. We can’t keep them out of schools or churches. You shriek yourself hoarse about making sure law-abiding citizens can protect themselves, and you do it so loudly that no one can hear us say that every shooter starts off as a law-abiding citizen.
Your talking points and your macho posturing no longer carry any weight. I blame you.