twinklefawn:

Unfortunately, this isn’t just a meme at this point. According to an article put out by the Washington Post today, more people have been killed at schools this year than have been killed while serving in the military. “Even excluding non-students who died in school shootings (for example, teachers) the total still exceeds military casualties.”  The three mass-casualty events for service members were two helicopter crashes and a plane crash.

The article continues, and only gets worse: “The number of deaths and school shooting incidents through May 18 are each higher this year than at any point since 2000. There have been three times as many deaths in school shootings so far this year than in the second-most deadly year through May 18, 2005.“

I understand that a school is not more dangerous than a combat zone. I have a retired military father, uncle, and grandfather, and an active duty brother who has been deployed to Afghanistan and Kuwait, among others. However, I went to middle and high school in Coral Springs, which is adjacent to and has close ties with Parkland. I have friends who go to Stoneman Douglas, including those whose own friends were killed, and friends whose family go to Douglas. I saw the videos as they were first starting to come out from people who recorded it themselves. I saw the shooter’s instagram before it was taken down. It makes me so sick to have to hear again and again about CHILDREN going through this, as my own community has, because adults have repeatedly let them down.

There is no reason to own guns capable of mass casualty incidents and no one needs high capacity magazines, such as those used at Douglas. Guns need to stop being allowed in the hands of children, such as in the cases of Douglas and now Santa Fe. Conservatives are valuing shooting cans behind their trailer over the LIVES OF CHILDREN because they seem to have no capacity for empathy and want to stick it to the “ESJAYDOUBLEYUH LIBTARDS THAT WANNA STEAL OUR GUNS!”. I’m done expressing my feelings nicely about this. The GOP and conservatives need to get the NRA’s dick out of their mouths. I’m at a loss for words because I’m so disgusted by so many people who value NRA payouts and getting hard over their gun collection in this sick country over the safety of innocent people. 

Gun control (not outright banning) has been proven to work. The US is the only first-world country (forgive me, I’m not sure how to better phrase that) where this happens on such a large scale, and everyone knows it, even if they continue to deny it. I know I’m mostly preaching to the choir here, but FUCK, I am pissed. VOTE IN THE MIDTERM ELECTIONS. GET THESE EVIL FUCKS OUT OF OFFICE.