Opinion: Time to STFU About Masks and Put Down the Guns

By Nikki Slusher

This week may be one of the darker weeks of this year and our country’s history. Within a 24-hour period, we had so many mass shootings people that when asked, “Did you hear about the mass shooting?” everyone had to respond with, “Which one?”

We should never have to ask this question. EVER.

Growing up in the first two decades of the 2000’s, I remember a time where mass-shootings were a national tragedy. They were rare, people were shocked. Almost 21 years later things have changed immensely. This month alone there have been almost 50 mass-shootings in this country. Since New Year’s Day there has been more than one mass-shooting per day.

Not only did we have numerous mass shootings, but last week also we had multiple unarmed black and teenage men killed by law enforcement. Anyone with three brain cells can see the trend going on here, yet half of the country refuses to acknowledge the facts – gun violence and deaths are drastically increasing and it’s only a matter of time until it’s one of our own friends or family members who are killed if we haven’t experienced that yet.

If you have yet to lose someone you love to a shooting, I pray you never have to feel the pain those who have went through and continue to suffer with daily. I also pray that it doesn’t take such an event for you to wake up if you are still screaming about gun rights. From my own personal experience, I will tell you this – when the answer is “oh, he was having a bad day so he shot up the place” you never find any peace; you only find anger, sorrow, and wonder why God would let such a thing happen if he really existed. You question everything you know and believe in.
Meanwhile, our political leaders have continued to argue back-and-forth over gun regulations and laws, like universal background checks or what types of firearms the average citizen may own. Yet Congress continues to allow members like Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and the rest of the ‘Anglo-Saxon Lives Matter’ crew continue to block progress on these legislative policies. They claim it’s their God given right to carry their AR-15’s around openly because the Second Amendment protects these liberties and how dare anyone change that.

We shouldn’t be shocked or expect much from a group of people who make decisions for the entirety of the country when they believe the Constitution begins with the Second Amendment. They only know the First Amendment when it involves one of the bigoted chicken heads being temporarily or permanently banned on social media for their hateful rhetoric. Again, these are the same people who scream about private businesses rights until it affects them.

This same group of people can’t stand the possibility of losing their 100 round magazine and assault-style weapons but couldn’t be bothered to wear a mask during a pandemic. They have no problem telling people of color to “comply with police and you won’t get killed” yet can’t even follow simple rules like walking through a metal detector to enter the House or Senate floor.
While Americans continue to be gunned down across the nation at work, FedEx facilities, religious places of worship, schools, Wal-Mart, supermarkets, music festivals and concerts, massage parlors, hell even their own homes while in bed, or at 2am after sneaking out of the house like most teenagers do, these leaders continue to protect guns, the manufacturers, and their lord and saviors over at the NRA. Why? To put it simply, they prefer enabling these companies to profit so that they don’t lose their mega-donors for their campaigns.

The whole “me, myself, and I” mindset is not only exhausting, but also getting real old real fast. What these people also fail to recognize is that if nobody can get a grip on law enforcement or mass-shootings, it’ll be their own fault when they lose their Second Amendment rights.

So, here’s what I have to say to them – shut the fuck up about mask mandates, Twitter bans, and metal detectors infringing on your personal liberties. You know what is infringing on everyone’s personal liberties? Not being able to walk out of our houses without the thought of “I hope I don’t get shot today at Wal-Mart”, our children going to school with fear they may be killed, and people of color having to fear they may become the next Eric Garner, Treyvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Adam Toledo, or the countless others who have met tragic ends to what should’ve been a long, beautiful life.

When our Founders wrote the Second Amendment guns fired one to two bullets a minute. Now we have firearms that can shoot over 100 bullets in under 60 seconds. The Republican Party’s gun rights stance is outdated and is on its way to being shut down indefinitely. The party of “pro-life” will eventually lose this battle. It’s just a matter of time before the government stops using 18th Century laws to govern in 2021.

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