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Arming ourselves: a dad’s perspective

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by Joshua O’Shaughnessy

I think that arming ourselves for protection is our only hope of curbing violence… what chance do the rest of us have when our hands are empty and bullets are flying

I have always backed the 2nd amendment, as it has always made sense for me to do so. However, I have never owned a gun. I have held firm to the belief that if I feel the need to arm myself against random violence, that it is time to move to another location.

In light of this week’s tragedies, it has become quite clear that this violence can happen anywhere, as it was at our doorstep on Tuesday in a mall in our very own city. There is no place that is safe anymore.

Now, I’m NOT just gonna march out and purchase a gun in light of these events, but I have been awakened to the fact that it is better to HAVE a gun and not NEED it than to NEED a gun and not HAVE it.

Just as we, as a country have forgotten to hold our society accountable by reducing sentences in heinous acts, thus resulting in a nationwide lack of respect for authority and the judicial process, we might be able to benefit from the taking up in arms in an effort to protect ourselves. At the very least, as was the time when we used to reprimand our youth for acting out and misbehaving, we instilled a healthy sense of fear for wrongdoing.

We can benefit as a society by holding firm to our values and demanding a change in the policies of our judicial system. Until then, I think that arming ourselves for protection is our only hope of curbing violence. It may seem to be ironic, in ways, to resort to purchasing tools of violence to curb violence, but what chance do the rest of us have when our hands are empty and bullets are flying?

How much it pains me to realize that this is my truth. I have no capacity for taking human life, and yet I live in fear that my loved ones can be taken from me without notice by the hands of someone else. This week marked a tipping point in America. I remain hopeful that this will somehow lead to a change for our society as a whole.

Joshua is a Portland area dad.

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