#Louder than Guns | Parenting In the Loop

Weekend Pics from Parenting in the Loop

Another weekend is upon us and we have yet another shooting to think about.

This week has been a seriously tragic one as we here in the United States watched yet another “mass shooting” take place in San Bernardino California. My gaze was riveted on the television screen as the helpers tried to assist the victims and the police tried to hunt down the shooters.

Growing up in NY, I was made aware of my surroundings at a very early age. It was necessary in order for me to remain safe from predators, who wanted to steal your purse or your life from you. Stranger danger was just a fact of my life as a city kid.

My alertness is therefore second nature, I lock everything, I look around me in garages, I carry pepper spray. But now there is a different anxiety and alertness that I live with, it permeates me from my core as I think about my granddaughter at school, my own daughters as they go about their lives and my husband as he works to save lives.

What happened in San Bernardino CAN happen anywhere at anytime!

This morning I have to share some stories with you about what we can do concerning the violence in our country and our neighborhoods.

It is serious stuff when other countries like Australia are now warning their citizens that travel to the United States is dangerous at this time of violence.

The following is a piece written by Noah Pozner’s grandmother published this weekend on her blog Farine . Noah’s life was violently ended in school at Sandy Hook. He was only six. Please read.

f you truly care, if you are not just paying lip-service to the awfulness of the moment, if you want our country to change, here is what you can do:Join a grass-root effort: Everytown for Gun Safety is a good place to start;Champion gun safety among your friends and relatives (and if you do own guns, please start at home);Call your congressmen and let them know what you expect from them;Vote with both your conscience and your heart in the next election.

Source: Another mass shooting

My faith is important to me and prayer is part of my life but I agree there is more to solving a problem than “thoughts and prayers”.

We must take action and responsibility for making our country a safer place not just for ourselves but for our children and grandchildren. Think about what you can do…even small actions can make a difference.

Your ‘thoughts’ should be about steps to take to stop this carnage,” tweeted Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. “Your ‘prayers’ should be for forgiveness if you do nothing — again.”A day after the California carnage, the Senate decided to do nothing, again, voting down a measure that would have made it more difficult for people on the terror watch list, felons and the mentally ill to buy guns.

Source: No More Thoughts and Prayers – The New York Times

The collective we are not doing enough! This weekend I hope ~~some~~ most of us will do something to help prevent more gun violence.

Another day, another ghastly shooting in America.So far this year, the United States has averaged more than one mass shooting a day, according to the ShootingTracker website, counting cases of four or more people shot. And now we have the attack on Wednesday in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed at least 14 people.

Source: On Guns, We’re Not Even Trying – The New York Times

I know this is a stressful time of year but for some people it is an extremely sad time as well. Please take time out this weekend to think about what you can do to make a difference.

The neighbor looked at the clock and saw it was almost 8:30, time to walk her daughter to the bus. “I have to go,” she said, hugging the Bardens, leaving them at the kitchen table. Jackie poured more coffee. Mark checked his phone messages. Jackie walked outside to get the mail and brought it into the living room. Mark opened a package from Minnesota that contained a Sherpa blanket and a note that read: “We will never forget.”

The school bus came. The school bus went.

“What do you want to do?” Mark asked, and in that moment, the answer to both of them was clear.

“What can we do?” Jackie said.

“Nothing,” Mark said, and he sank down next to her on the couch.

via After Newtown shooting, mourning parents enter into the

lonely quiet – The Washington Post.

I hope you will read this entire piece from The Washington Post and commit yourself to making difference when it comes to gun ownership in the United States.

There must be stronger gun regulation…not that it will prevent all of the violence but it hopeful could certainly prevent some.

The Bardens fight for gun controls will be a long one that will constantly remind them of that horrible day in December, 2012 when their beloved son died at the hands of a mass murderer in what was supposed to be a safe haven ….his first grade classroom.

I am not sure I could be as strong as they have been in their efforts on the political scene…it just seems so painful, futile and frustrating in many ways, reopening a wound that will never really heal.

This type of fight is truly never ending…it is a battle that leads to more frustration on some days than any parent, who has lost a child should have to endure.

Remembering back to 1981, when President Reagan and Jim Brady were shot outside a hotel in Washington, D.C….there was outrage…Jim Brady and his wife battled long and hard to have the Brady Bill passed.

It was finally signed into law by President Clinton in 1993!

The Brady Bill was a start, but over the years it has not proven to be all that effective.

The Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (Pub.L. 103–159, 107 Stat. 1536, enacted November 30, 1993) is an Act of the United States Congress that instituted federal background checks on firearm purchasers in the United States.

It was signed into law by President Bill Clinton on November 30, 1993, and went into effect on February 28, 1994. The Act was named after James Brady, who was shot by John Hinckley, Jr. during an attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan on March 30, 1981.

via Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

I worry for the Bardens, that without the clout of many of us they will continue to suffer more and more as they attempt to have an effect on the gun lobby.

How can any of us help?

How do you really feel about guns?

The Barden family’s pain should not go unnoticed when it comes to this issue..

the loss of their beloved son Daniel is a horrible tragedy

that should never have happened…

I am heartsick after reading their story in the Washington Post…

knowing that nothing can soothe their pain…

if I had the opportunity I would wrap my arms around them

but they would be easing my sadness not the other way around…

there is nothing that can justify the death of a child…

to surviving parents and family…

Nothing…