A little history.

A little history.

April 17, 2007, 12:28 pm
Filed under: Depression, General Musings, Guns, Violence, Writing stuff

My dad was a cop, killed on the job.  You can look it up: 12/12/69.  I was 11.
And so, whenever I hear of gun violence, I have a personal connection.  A little history, as you might say.  Given the number of times guns are used in this country to kill, you might guess that this happens a lot.

As I told a friend (who is a professor on a college campus not unlike Virginia Tech) this morning:

Horrid, isn’t it?  Having experienced gun violence in my own family, this sort of thing raises ghosts and pre-occupies me entirely too much when it happens.  And gives me a hard & cynical eye when examining the facile solutions suggested by both the gun nuts and the gun-control nuts.  I’m sick of hearing on the one hand how easy it would be for someone to stop such a horror just by having their own gun – and equally sick of being told that anyone who does indeed own guns is obviously some kind of mental case who doesn’t really understand the dangers involved.

I have opinions about this.  Strong opinions.

But for now, I just grieve.  Again.

Jim Downey

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