In Honor of Our Children: Working For Safer Gun Laws Is My Personal Plan For Respecting Life (From Zicharonot)

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Please read this thoughtful and passionate post from the blog Zicharonot about the issue of gun violence. If you, like so many of us, are horrified and heartbroken by the numbers of people killed by guns in this country, I hope you will take some of the steps suggested here. I would add one more group to the list of organizations to support, especially if you live in New York State, and that is New Yorkers Against Gun Violence, where my daughter Rebecca Fischer is the executive director.

zicharonot

February 27 would have been my Mom’s birthday.  I have thinking about her so much since the latest school shooting. My Mom taught school for 30 years. Most of the time she taught fourth grade. There are some families for whom she taught multiple generations of children.

I also work in a school. It focuses on helping students who do not learn well in a traditional school setting. We have children who have anxiety disorders, ADD/ADHD, extremely brilliant children, bullied children, those on the autism spectrum, gay children, transgender children, depressed children, all special, all worthy and all needing an extra boost.  And I wonder how we will continue to keep all children safe from the outrageous behavior coming from the adults in our country.

I have been wondering what my Mom would think of all this gun violence and what she would do if she was still alive. Our…

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36 thoughts on “In Honor of Our Children: Working For Safer Gun Laws Is My Personal Plan For Respecting Life (From Zicharonot)”

  1. If the majority of the people are promoting tighter gun controls, why does it take so long to implement them. It seems to me contrary to what we think democracy is all about small powerful interest groups are running the country. They need to be stopped before it is too late. Thanks, Amy, for a very timely post on gun controls!

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    • I didn’t write it so can’t take credit—just reblogged it from a fellow blogger! As for why it takes so long—we do not have democracy in the US, no matter what we claim. Our system is rigged so that those with money control our elections and those elected then are loyal to those who gave money, not the people. It’s disgusting. And yet we go around the world preaching democracy to other nations.

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      • Oh Amy, this is really sad. My father-in-law said the very same thing about the political system of the USA over 50 years ago. He called it a plutocracy. I was an idealist as a young man and would not believe him. I have been in the States a few times and must say I met only friendly, helpful, open-minded people. So I learned to make a distinction between the common people and those who govern them. That prevents me to fall into the trap of becoming anti-American. Thanks for the clarification, Amy!

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      • Well, I would say most people here are friendly and helpful—not so sure about open-minded! It’s not really ordinary people who are the problem—it’s the corporations and groups like the NRA that truly run and ruin the country. I do love my country—that’s why it hurts so much.

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  3. Thanks for reposting this. It’s important to know what one can do to help bring about change. I believe that many people want to make a difference, but feel that it’s “too big” and they don’t understand how small acts by many people can have huge power. I am every day grateful that gun violence is not a big issue in NZ, But we live in a small world, and if there are companies exporting here that are in bed with the NRA then there’sa chance I can add my voice and withdraw my dollars!!

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    • I agree—people are frustrated and overwhelmed and don’t know what to do. But many companies in the past few days have said they will no longer partner with the NRA on discounts. There has to be more and more public pressure to undermine their economic and political power. And yes, many corporations that are linked to the NRA do business around the world—Google, Apple, and Amazon, e.g. They are all streaming NRA TV. Somehow we the public need to keep up the pressure and the outrage in order to make things change. Thanks, Su!

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      • I read NRA TV and couldn’t figure out what you meant for a moment. The idea that there could be television created by/for the NRA is just inconceivable to me. I have to go find out more about this. Do you know the British slang word “gobsmacked”? That’s me right now 😱

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      • I had never heard of NRA TV myself until this week. Let’s just say it’s not something I would have looked to watch! And yes, I’ve watched enough British/Australian tv to know gobsmacked! (Do NZers and Aussies still consider themselves British?)

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      • Not so much these days. I lived in England for most of the 90s and still find a lot of the slang word say quite perfectly what I want to express.
        Actually, I steal words and phrases shamelessly where ever I find them. 🙂
        And as for NRA TV, the Big T was similarly gobsmacked when I told him about it.

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      • I do love some of the expressions I hear on British shows. I am still trying to figure out the differences between all the different accents and words used by those of us in English-speaking countries. I guess with TV and movies we are all moving towards one amalgamation of all the different slang and expressions.

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      • Yes, English is a language that “borrows” from everywhere. I’m quite good at picking different British accents — especially Scottish ones. Not long after the Big T and I started going out I impressed him by pinpointing to within a few miles the accent of a man we met. It did help that it was very local to where my family is from, and I knew other people from his village. Still, it was a good party trick. I doubt I could do it now; partly because I’ve been away from Scotland for too long, but mostly I suspect because you are right and very local accents are disappearing.

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      • Does a NZ accent sound like an Australian accent? To me the Australian accent sometimes sounds like a Boston accent (in some characters on Australian shows) but sometimes more like an English accent. And then there the somewhat more distinctive accent like the Crocodile guy had. 🙂

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      • To the rest of the world, Australian and NZ accents (and sometimes South African too) sound the same. Of course, to us, they are very different. The tell-tale is in vowel sounds. “Fish and chips” sounds like “feesh and cheeps” spoken by an Aussie (stereotyping here), while from a Kiwi it’s more likely to sound like “fush and chups.” 🙂

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      • It would probably be lost on me. I used to hear all those accents as the same—and the same as an English accent. Now I can at least distinguish them some of the time. And for whatever reason, those accents always make people sound smarter than Americans!

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  4. Up here in Canada, most of us sadly shake our heads at the lack of stringent gun control laws as shooting after shooting hurts our neighbors down south. Please keep up the pressure on your legislators to break away from the death grip the NRA and special interests have on this issue.

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  6. Amy I see the problem as the lobbyists, too. We elect officials but the lobbyists get to them after the elections. They insert themselves between constituents and the elected officials and we know who has the most money to sway legislation. This is why I think another prong in the strategy must be lessening the influence of lobbyists and establishing laws that prevent politicians from becoming pro-gun lobbyists once they leave office, too.

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  7. Amy, I have no ideas to help you, unfortunately. I would not be surprised about some strange things on a census report, but it can be so frustrating. One census shows my grandmother as an “order taker” in a refrigeration business. Hahaha, never. She always lived by her needle. Just ridiculous. This reads like a mystery novel. Have you ever read any genealogy mysteries? I just finished my 3rd Jefferson Tayte, and I think you could write this genre beautifully! By the way, just started reading this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24737108-the-house-by-the-lake. I’ve finished the prologue and am up to page 14 haha, but I think the subject matter would be of interest to you. It’s about the lakehouse near Potsdam of a German Jewish family–they had to leave it behind when they fled to Britain. The book is supposed to be 100 years of history of the author’s and other families.

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  8. Amen to all of the above! Bizarre as it sounds, I don’t believe you can solve this at a political level – it seems the reactionaries are too deeply entrenched to let go, and they will simply conjure up another device to circumvent any attempt at political change. The best bet for me would be public ostracism – do with gun ownership what we did with smoking and make it an anti-social act to even look at a gun. Impose heavy advertising restrictions, make gun ownership a disqualification when applying for jobs, apartments, and certainly a condition refusing entry when applying for school places. There must be social groups already in place to take up the cause – ensure they are well financed, energized and organized. The world watches appalled. You must win this fight!

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    • The problem here is that there are many people who are as passionate about their guns as those of us who are passionate about controlling them. And imposing advertising restrictions and making gun ownership an impediment to jobs takes politics, not just public will alone, and our politics, as you noted, is so corrupt and broken that even with majority support, nothing happens on the federal level. Fortunately on the state level more does happen, at least in states like mine (Massachusetts) and other so-called “blue states.” But even the states are limited by the way the Supreme Court decided to interpret our Second Amendment. It would take a true miracle to repeal the Second Amendment or to get Justices appointed to the Court who would interpret the Second Amendment in a way that makes more historical and social sense.

      America is a sick, sick country, and we have more problems than just gun violence, although that one is near the top of my list. It’s very sad and very scary.

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