When you get right down to it, I think we all believe in some form of gun control. I mean, I think you'd be hard pressed to find a lot of people who support their next door neighbor's right to own a tank or possess a nuclear device. The real question is what level of control.
Our country has faced so many tragedies and just recently, Sandy Hook Elementary School, the 2 firemen in New York state, and right in Norwich, CT, an officer was shot several times this week. The ongoing gun violence in our cities is a whole other tragedy.
Let me say right off the start, I don't have the answer.
Some say take all the guns away, some say ban assault weapons, some say strengthen the permit process at gun shows, some say arm the teachers and put armed guards at every school. Some point to the lack of mental health care or the violence in video games.
I don't have the answers but we are the country that put a man on the moon, I think if we come together we should be able to find a way to protect the second amendment and at the same time protect our 6 year olds.
We need an honest dialogue on this issue and a willingness to compromise.
Compromise has become a lost art, and look where it has let us, to a polarized society that elects extremist to congress who would rather go down with a sinking ship than work together and sail that ship, compromising on the direction it should go.
If we work together, if we compromise, both sides get something and neither side gets everything.
There was a time when that was the American Way.
Let us strive to understand the other side while holding to our own beliefs, let us strive to find compromise that protects our rights and our children, let the recent tragedies be a wake up call for us to elect and demand leaders who put the Many ahead of the Few.
We have risen to this before and we can rise to it again.
If we fail, we fail our children.
