gun control

Thoughts and Prayers Are as Effective as Passing Wind in Stopping Gun Violence

Whenever a natural or a man-made disaster strikes thoughts and prayers are offered in the hopes that the Almighty might intervene and stop the endless cycle of death and destruction.

But “acts of God “such as hurricanes and wildfires have increased in frequency and intensity due to man-made climate change, and mass shootings have increased in frequency and lethality due to our inability to pass common sense gun laws and the criminal neglect of people suffering from mental illness.

Atheists, believers and anyone with two brains cells to rub together should come to the inescapable conclusion that passing wind to put out a wildfire is as effective as praying to stop a mass shooting.

Prayers dissipate before they reach heaven and they are of little comfort to victims grieving over the death of loved ones. Windbag politicians and sanctimonious preachers should stop insulting our intelligence by reflectively offering their thoughts and prayers in the aftermath of a tragedy.

Let’s not waste our breath uttering useless thoughts and prayers and instead expend our energy and resources in tackling the intractable problems of climate change and gun violence.

More Gun Control! More Firearms Training! Less Gun Worship! Less Open Carry!

I’m a progressive who believes in sensible gun control and I also own a shotgun and a handgun, and the two things aren’t mutually exclusive.

I live in an open carry state, however I don’t feel a psychological or political need to walk around with a gun to establish my Second Amendment credentials.

I don’t measure freedom by how many citizens walk around with gun. If I visit a town where most people are toting assault weapons or handguns, I’m not thinking, “This is a cradle of liberty and freedom, I’m moving here.”

I feel safe with my loaded firearm under my bed, but I don’t feel the need to take it with me wherever I go. I rely on the police to serve and protect me with I’m out in public, but I rely on my guns to protect me when I’m home until the police arrive.

Republican men (I’ve never seen a woman in public openly carrying a gun) who worship guns and brandish them to compensate for their physical shortcomings are giving the Second Amendment a bad name.

Guns shouldn’t be a phallic symbol or an object of worship, they are simply tools to be used for hunting and self-defense.

I remember a time when almost everyone had a gun but nobody bragged about how many guns they owned, and they certainly didn’t walk around strapped.

I will feel safer when there are less idiots walking around carrying assault weapons, and speaking about their weapons in reverential terms.

More gun control. More firearms training. Less open carry states. Less gun worship.

Stop Gun Violence! Stop Offering Thoughts and Prayers!

Whenever there’s a mass shooting so-called “people of faith”, who hold a tighter grip on their guns than they do on their prayer beads and Bibles, litter social media with thoughts and prayers.

These thoughts and prayers are as efficacious in preventing gun violence and ameliorating its devastating consequences as a gun that emits a flag saying “BANG” when the trigger is pulled is at stopping a burglar who has broken into your home.

Faith without works is dead and offering vacuous thoughts and prayers after a massacre is an affront and an insult to the victims and to everyone who lives in fear of gun violence.

A million thoughts and prayers on Twitter aren’t worth a hill of beans, and they don’t reach heaven or even the power brokers in D.C.

With all due respect, people of faith can stuff their thoughts and prayers where the sun don’t shine. If they were serious about stopping gun violence, and if they really cared about the victims, they would weaponize their thoughts and prayers by taking on the NRA and demanding that lawmakers ban military-style firearms.

If I’m the victim of gun violence and a person offers me his thoughts and prayers I would respond as if he had intentionally farted in my face.

If we ban the phrase “thoughts and prayers” from the lexicon, religion and our democracy would be better off.