Numb

I'm numb. Not from my MS, this time, but from the events of the past week.
Emotionally numb.

And this glass-is-half-full woman is struggling to even see a drop of water. So, this morning I've decided to sit down and write - in the hope of finding some water to fill my glass. Bear with me ...

For Mother's Day in the year 2000, I was in D.C. for the Million Mom March. I spent the day away from John and the three little Piggins because the idea of two teen boys armed with legally purchased firearms that killed 12 and injured 21 in Columbine Colorado and terrorized a nation and called me to do something. The following was pulled from Wikipedia (I can't believe I'm citing Wikipedia!):

"In the months prior to the attacks, Harris and Klebold acquired two 9 mm firearms and two 12-gauge shotguns. Their friend Robyn Anderson bought a rifle and the two shotguns at the Tanner Gun Show in December 1998.^[28] Through Philip Duran,^[29] another friend, Harris and Klebold later bought a handgun from Mark Manes for $500.

Using instructions found on the Internet, Harris and Klebold constructed a total of 99 improvised explosive devices of various designs and sizes. They sawed the barrels and butts off their shotguns to make them easier to conceal.^[14]

On the day of the massacre, Harris was equipped with a 12-gauge Savage-Springfield 67H pump-action shotgun (which he discharged a total of 25 times) and a Hi-Point 995 Carbine 9 mm carbine with thirteen 10-round magazines (which he fired a total of 96 times).

Klebold was equipped with a 9×19mm Intratec TEC-9 semi-automatic handgun with one 52-, one 32-, and one 28-round magazine and a 12-gauge Stevens 311D double-barreled sawed-off shotgun. Klebold primarily fired the TEC-9 handgun for a total of 55 times, while he discharged a total of 12 rounds from his double-barreled shotgun."

I was horrified that these boys could so easily attain this arsenal. And even more horrified how easily they learned how to slaughter.  So I boarded a bus and headed to D.C. with others from Grand Rapids to join a million others on the mall where we listened to speakers and musicians believing that sensible gun legislation was possible.

Fast forward 16 years ... still waiting for that sensible gun legislation. In the meantime:

"WASHINGTON — A report released by the F.B.I. on Wednesday confirmed what many Americans had feared but law enforcement officials had never documented: Mass shootings have risen drastically in the past half-dozen years.

There were, on average, 16.4 such shootings a year from 2007 to 2013, compared with an average of 6.4 shootings annually from 2000 to 2006. In the past 13 years, 486 people have been killed in such shootings, with 366 of the deaths in the past seven years. In all, the study looked at 160 shootings since 2000. (Shootings tied to domestic violence and gangs were not included.)

Many of the sprees ended before the police arrived, the report said. In 44 of the 64 cases in which the F.B.I. was able to determine the length of the shooting, the gunfire lasted less than five minutes. Twenty-three shootings ended in less than two minutes. In 64 of the 160 total cases, the gunmen committed suicide.

The report was prompted by the spate of mass shootings in recent years, like those at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut and at a movie theater in Aurora, Colo. It measured “active” shootings, which the F.B.I defined as committed by “an individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area.”

This was from a 2014 NY Times article citing the recent FBI report. Since 2014, there have been an additional 91 people killed in mass shootings. If my math is correct (and if you know me, you know that math is not my gift!) the total now stands at 577.

Still looking as I'm writing for a positive in this story ...

And this may be it - but not necessarily a positive from my perspective: according to their own website, the NRA currently has 4.3 million members, with a revenue of $205 million, their CEO earns nearly $900,000 a year, it spent $10 million in the 2008 presidential election and it spent $15 million on its new headquarters. Good thing it's a non-profit organization.

Since Monday, after the worst mass-shooting in US history, by a man claiming allegiance to ISIS using an AK-something rifle, sales of similar weapons of mass destruction have skyrocketed. This is not a weapon one would use for hunting or self-defense - unless perhaps you wanted to have your deer/venison ground at the time of the kill. And then that's totally reasonable and time-saving. How much quicker it would be to have venison chili?! Genius, right? And unless you were defending yourself from an invading army - since I believe it shoots a gazillion rounds in one minute. And then that's totally reasonable and genius. Right?

So, here's my positive out of all of this - and the glass is positively overflowing now - the NRA is getting rich and smart people all over this US of A are saving time making their venison chili and defending themselves against invading armies.

I knew I could get to refilling my glass. It just took time and research.

Why do I not feel any better?

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