Seated As One

Re: SHOOT, THAT WAS EASY, by Helen Ubinas

Philadelphia Daily News Columnist 6/15/2016

(http://articles.philly.com/2016-06-15/news/73771600_1_gun-shop-ar-15-semi-automatic-rifle-licensed-gun-store )

Seven minutes is all it takes to own the weaponry suited for soldiers putting their lives on the line for the stars and stripes that represent this country’s freedom.  Seven whole minutes… The difference between patriot and domestic terrorist.

The recent sit-in protest concerning gun control legislation is an action that is long overdue.  200 democratic leaders, led by Georgia Rep. John Lewis shouted, “No bill, No break,” on the floor of the House chamber.  After the worst mass shooting in American history (if you don’t count the 1923 Rosewood Massacre or the 1921 Tulsa Riot or the Elaine Massacre of 1919) the whole world is watching US.

It is unfortunate that we are a culture empowered by guns.  On television and in our movies, guns are a stronghold that our children identify with whenever they are rewarded with water guns, cap guns, B.B. guns, and plastic M-16’s.  How is this any different than giving a child a replica of a suicide bomber’s vest for Christmas? Or a rope that assimilates a hangman’s noose as a birthday gift?

Our country’s progression is handicapped by the easy access to firearms that are constructed for the purpose of holding down battlefields – not for the sake of unleashing terror on an elementary school in Newtown, CT, or a gay nightclub in Orlando, FL.  This is why I applaud the cavalier journalism of Helen Ubinas.  Her guilty style of “getting the story,” demonstrated that it only took seven minutes to buy an AR-15.  Approximately 8 days prior to the efforts of democrats to shut down the House’s legislative work.

Gat, tool, heat, hammer, sender, strap, steel and cannon; colloquialisms that make firearms synonymous with crime.  “My Uzzi Weighs a Ton,” “Tons of Guns,” “Pass Me the Gat,” and “Reign of the Tec,” is a soundtrack, which perpetuates the stigma of a gun being a sensible resolution.  I guess this is why a middle-aged Latina woman had no problem walking into a Philly gun shop and purchasing an AR-15 assault rifle during her lunch break.

“Turn out I don’t need a story. The AR-15 is on display in the window of the gun shop.  It is being promoted as the gun of the week,” she says while carrying a cardboard box over half of her height.  Just think about the burning scent a cap gun leaves after each trigger thrust.  Or, how about the dialogue between kids when another doesn’t respect the rules of being shot while playing cops and robbers:

“You dead.  I shot chu when you was hidin behind the statue.”

“No I ain’t, cause I shot chu a long time ago when you tried to hide behind the car.”

These are words of make believe, today, but what do these words say about the future of this country?

If acquiring an assault rifle is as simple as presenting valid identification proving your American citizenship and $759.99, then Helen’s summation reads more like a cautionary take rather than a citizen being cautiously optimistic, “If nothing changed after children – babies – were slaughtered inside their school, do any of us really believe anything will change following the deaths of people so many fear and loathe simply for trying to live their truth.”

It took more time for her to turn the gun into police that it did to make the purchase.  As she filled out the lengthy paperwork, she noticed a sign hanging on the wall in the police station, “United We Stand.”

What is it that we are standing for as a country, when the barbarity of a few laying down Americans in masses?  There must be a vote on measures to expand background checks and block gun purchases.  “No bill, No break” is why the House chamber floor is covered with seated Democrats.  United so that it is safe to stand again.

Leroy E. Mann

Copyright © 2016 by Leroy Elwood Mann