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Health & Fitness

Why the Fort Hood Shooting Really Isn't News #AmericasDenial

As I scrolled through my Facebook newsfeed early this morning I mentally prepared myself for the barrage of post relating to yesterday’s tragic mass shooting on the Fort Hood Military Base in Texas; the same base that was the location of another mass shooting back in 2009.  Funny thing is, as I scrolled past silly cat memes and inspirational quotes I began to notice the absence of any mention of the Fort Hood shooting. I glanced to the right of my newsfeed toward the “trending” column on my computer screen (see pic) to read the list

Big Bang Theory

Josh Elliot

Baby and Me

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Jeff Bridges

Boomer Esiasdon

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John Doe

Ed Sheeran

James Franco

Patrick Stewart

 

Not one mention of the Fort Hood Shooting was included in this morning Facebook trending column. Hmmm? I opened another tab and took a look at Google+  “trending” (see pic)

James Franco

Yellowstone Volcano

Kent State

Chupacabra

Detroit Tigers

Not one mention of the Fort Hood shooting was included in the Google+ trending column. Hmmm? I surfed over to Twitter. Surely, Twitter would be trending on a subject so vital to our nation?

#Hulubingeday

#Throwbackthursday

#Birthday

#eastenders

#Vybzxkartel

#Jamesfranco

#whitehouse

#Forthood

 

Well, there it is! At least it is appearing in Twitters trending column. Granted, its way down on the list, 8th to be exact …below Hulu binge day and James Franco.  

So, let’s recap. Yesterday, yet another mass shooting took place on American soil. For a second time our own military were gunned down by our own at the very location of a prior shooting nearly 5 years ago. Since 1982 there have been over 70 mass shootings in America!  

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/07/mass-shootings-map?page=2

Yet, the American people, forget the press, the people are more interested in Spider Man dancing with his infant self in an Evian water advertisement and whether or not the actor James Franco wants to bang a 17 year old then being interested in the random killing of our own people. And some people reading this will have the audacity to be offended by my crudeness in using the slang “bang”.  This is truly an indicator of America’s denial about gun violence in our country.

The generally mundane reaction to yesterday’s events support that Americans believe this type of aggression is an acceptable level of violence, something that we just live with.  Since the Newtown School shooting, in which a gunman murdered 71 American children, America has not changed or passed one gun law, or gun regulation in an effort to regain control over this spiraling epidemic of violence against our own people.

In a news conference yesterday afternoon our president stated “we will get to the bottom of this”, in regard to the most current Fort Hood shooting that claimed 4 lives and injured 16 others. Really, Mr. President? What exactly have you and our government been doing during that 5 year gap ?  Quite obviously, very little to do with protecting the American people against gun violence.   

Yesterday’s shooter is said to have purchased his weapon locally and legally. The 2009 Fort Hood shooter also purchased his gun locally and legally. As a matter of fact, Major Nidal Hasan, convicted of the 2009 shooting, spent 4 months stock piling ammunition for his killing spree, purchased both locally and legally.

So our highly trained military personnel are subject to strict weapon controls on base, but any old person can jaunt out among the civilian population and purchase a weapon with barely a question ask?    

Americans are at a life-threatening crossroad, and the time to end this toxic love affair with guns has arrived. If we can’t even live peacefully among ourselves, how do we expect to ward off outside dangers? The world is sitting back and watching our own self destruction. We are doing the dirty work of our enemies quite nicely, and they know it. This internal violence is nothing more than a weakness chipping away at our American armor.

Are you patriotic enough to give up your weapon?  Even over the bodies of our dead soldiers there will be those who hold tight to their weapons, digging deeper and deeper into America’s denial.

 

“How many have to die before we will give up these dangerous toys?” 
― Stephen KingGuns

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