Cowardice, Conscience
The idea that each human life is sacred. (I know most will read that religiously. )
I think it’s broader. The uniqueness of every life….is, de facto a sacred thing.
In the disability community, we fight against it ending at a time when the person living it wants it to go on…fight so that it is our definition of worth, not the able’s that predominates decisions on when a life will end.
Many governments, as well as faith traditions fight for the earliest possible beginning. Unafraid of the crossroads of infringing on an adult’s privacy, indeed well being, if it means that the earliest possible beginning of existence is the one all must submit to…cloaks it in that word sacred used above.
But even those who call themselves “pro life” with all that that implies in American society today…will not hesitate to cease examining the value of those young lives if they perceive their Second Amendment rights and protections are under threat of being infringed.
In other words, pro life is only pro life until I’m asked to undergo a background check.
Man, pray about this one, religious folks. I mean it. Really. Is the right to life liberty and happiness less important, less absolute than the right to own any and all guns, any and all clips, and the freedom from a backround check? Rights can conflict with other rights, as some cable pundit said today.
Is the right to life, which adherents would agree is most closely associated in the American psyche with protecting children, less of a right than the right to bear arms?
What we could do of course, is have our legislators vote on gun safety. And those who hold the Second Amendment as the absolutist of absolute rights at the top of the heap could vote no. No on banning assault weapons, no on limiting the number of bullets in a clip, no on running a criminal background check on a person before placing a lethal tool in their hands. We could vote on this. Because of course we are a republic, and our elected representatives are paid to vote on such issues of importance as this.
And, given the current makeup of the House and Senate, the weapon and clip bans would go down to defeat if brought to a vote. There are a plentiful amount of legislators that have a strong belief that their right to own as many varied types of killing weapons as they wish in no way conflicts with any pro life sentiment they may express about other issues. The background check would likely also go down to defeat, but it does have a small chance at passage.
So, there’s a filibuster being planned so that a vote *cannot even take place.*
So lets say, down the road, a background check would have hampered, perhaps even prevented another mass shooting…because the actor in that case would never have passed one, and had a much lower chance of getting their weaponry.
I’m going to take note of every single Senator and Congresspersons name who filibusters or supports the filibuster….and I will assign some measure of responsibility for those deaths to those names.
Because these cowards don’t even have the stones to vote their convictions, their consciences in the light of day. They haven’t the spine to cast a no vote. Cowards. Craven cowards.
Oh my God, gun rights legislators. Allow a vote. Vote no and be proud proud of that vote protecting the 2nd Amendment. Be proud of the background checks that will never be run, the pauses for reloading that will happen less often, thus increasing the body count of the next mass shooting, or for that matter the next gun killing anywhere in the US.
Stand up for your rights, so that your right to own any and all guns, and any and all ammo eventually trumps a young person’s right to safety and happiness and breathing.
Midlife And Treachery 
