To our 9th island

On June 14, 2016 I wrote some thoughts about gun control…that I want to bring up again in light of the tragedy in Las Vegas last night.  Here were my thoughts from 2016:

Today I watched a video from Trevor Noah’s The Daily Show.  It’s perfect and it’s really the way I feel about all these mass shootings.  Did you know, we’ve already had 180 mass shootings in the United States this year…180.  And it’s only June [2016].  We have six more months to go people.  Imagine the damage and the lives lost that will…and yes…WILL happen in the next coming months?  Last year alone we had 371 mass shootings.  It’s fucking unbelievable.  And what’s worse, is that we’re doing nothing about it.

Gun control IS an issue in this country, whether you agree or not.  It is way too fucking easy to get a gun here.  Omar Mateen, the shooter in the Orlando nightclub, bought two guns LEGALLY.  He was already investigated by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 and he was listed on two federal watch lists.  And yet…he could still obtain a firearms license and bought two guns one week before he decided to murder 50 people.  Ummm…don’t you think something is wrong with that picture??  How the eff can someone who was already interviewed by the FBI, who beat his wife, who was mentally unstable, who associated himself with radical parties…purchase guns legally?  HOW. THE. FUCK.  But no…it’s not about guns.  It’s never about guns.  Instead, our society blames terrorism, blames radical Islam, blames ISIS, blames the Muslim religion, blames fucking turbans for what happened.  No.  Nonononono.  It’s because a crazy ass bigot decided to go apeshit, bought some guns, and killed human beings.  He actually went to the gun store three times in one week…like hey I’m going to buy a gun.  Wait I need a larger gun.  Oh yah, I need bullets to kill people.  Yep…no red flags there….

Yes…even if we did have stricter gun laws, people can still buy guns on the black market…or on the back streets of Kalihi.  Yes…that will happen.  But our country still needs to make it more difficult for people to buy guns legally.  Look at 9/11.  Terrorists used airplanes to murder a shitload of people.  And what did our country do in response?  Our government scrambled like hell to make it fucking impossible to travel.  We now have to stand in the longest fucking lines at the airport, waiting to take off our shoes, our jackets, put tiny useless 3 ounce bottles of liquid into quart size ziplock bags, and walk though x-ray machines.  We suffer through pat-downs and wand metal detectors and TSA agents making you throw away your fucking triple AAA battery for your noise-cancelling headphones.  That is what happened.  And that is what is necessary in order to make it harder for a crazy sunofabitch to hijack a Boeing airliner.

So why not guns?  I think people need to start suffering in order to purchase a fucking ASSAULT RIFLE.  I mean sure…still allow people to buy them…you know Second Amendment and all that shit.  Maybe I’ll buy a gun too.  But maybe… maybe I should get denied…since in the last 10 minutes my google history shows: Omar Mateen, why is it legal to buy assault rifles, what kind of gun was used in shooting, metal wand detectors, 9/11 planes, bigot, 2nd amendment, and game of thrones.  I feel like those could be red flags.  One more google history search for “president assassination” and I should be on the FBI watch list.  WHICH SHOULD FUCKING PROHIBIT ME FROM BUYING A GUN.

Look…our country cannot stop every thing from happening.  I get that.  And they can’t put regulations on every little thing either.  I mean…a serial killer could start murdering people with metal spoons.  Is the U.S. going to start requiring background checks to buy metal spoons?  No.  Because that’s ridiculous.  People use cars as weapons all the time to run over pedestrians…yet there are no regulations when it comes to purchasing a car…albeit a credit check.  We cannot regulate everything.  But we can make it harder for a psychopath to buy a gun [a weapon which is purely used to kill things] legally in the United States.  Maybe it wouldn’t have stopped Mateen from killing 50 people…but maybe it would have made a difference.

And maybe it would have made a difference in Las Vegas.  Maybe not.  But, maybe it would have made it more difficult for Stephen Paddock to purchase AR-15-style assault rifles to murder 59 people and severely injure over 527 others.

I know people are saying its too early to talk about gun control…and instead we need to focus on grieving and helping the victims of this horrific violence.  Sure…okay…respect.  But when the fuck is the right time to talk about it???  How long do we need to wait?  Do we need another headline stating “United States’ deadliest mass shooting in history” to get the ball rolling?  I mean what the fuck do we need to do if not stricter gun laws?  Does every single hotel in the universe need to check the luggage of every single guest??  Do we need pat-downs upon entry and exit of every building over 5 stories tall??  Should every single citizen be subjected to intense psychological examination upon turning age 18?

I don’t know, but fucking DO SOMETHING.