So far I am surviving, that is. We didn’t hit 100 today although once this afternoon, my phone proclaimed 99. The humidity is creeping up though. That can be a bad thing except that I am thinking that higher humidity is involved in what little rain we’ve had. Weather aficionados, is that true? We did have [a little] rain this morning. Not enough to sneeze at but every little bit… I have been watering like a fiend and the clematis and morning glories that we planted on our new arbor are thriving! And, knock on wood big-time, so are my tomato plants. Still crossing my fingers on that one though.

I really don’t want to start a whole bunch of political crap going so maybe I should leave this topic alone. It’s just meeeee and my own uninformed opinions. But. I have spent just about my entire life living with people who own guns and use them *responsibly*. Yes, that is possible. I have never lived with someone who kept a loaded gun around “for security”. Well, except that maybe my dad did. He was a small-town bank manager, who was, for many years, the person the local police called when they did their rounds and found the bank door unlocked in the middle of the night. Yes, really. That kind of job in itself might be a reason for packing some heat, so maybe the old coot did take a gun when he was wearing that hat. I don’t know or remember. If he did, I never knew it. Was there a gun *at* the bank? I’m racking (yes) my brain trying to remember if there was. I am gonna guess that there was one there back when my *grandfather* was the bank president…

Anyway, my folks kept the guns unloaded and locked up. I never even knew where they were (and didn’t care) although I’ve been told that The Engineer did. No surprise there. There is a difference between being a private citizen who owns guns (and uses them responsibly) and a citizen who, well, does what the Aurora shooter did. Why can anyone go out on the internet and bulk-buy all the stuff he bought without catching somebody’s attention? It was a different age when my late neighbor Burke used to go down to Schlenker Hardware and buy dynamite. He probably knew those guys and I’m sure they knew he was a fun guy who was not going to use the dynamite to blow up a school or something. Although a few years ago when his widow called the bomb squad, I was told there was enough dynamite in his basement to blow up his house and the two houses on either side, one of them being mine. That was a fun day of bonding with the neighbors >wink<

I’m not sure exactly what point I’m trying to make here. Guns and explosives are half the equation. Other than that, there are always going to be “crazy” people. I don’t know the Aurora shooter. I am just reading bits and pieces of news about him. Yes. So many of these shooters seem like lonely misfits. Not very many friends. No romantic attachments. Bullied and teased. Yada yada. That’s a pity (as my Dear Uncle Harry would say). On the other hand, there *are* people who have childhoods like that and much, much, much worse who make it out alive and thrive and become good citizens, loving parents, and productive members of society.

This kind of thing has been happening throughout history and it will happen again (and again (and again (and again))). I am not *for* gun control per se but I do think that it shouldn’t be possible to buy what this kid bought on the internet.

Are his parents to blame? Well, I dunno what went on in his home as he was growing up. I know that his mother has been quoted as saying something that indicated she wasn’t surprised when reporters called her in the middle of the night. If I heard right, she has since kind of retracted that. I dunno. I just happy that I am not that mom. I know that there are moments in parenting when you are absolutely terrified that your kid is heading down some wrong path or other. And I am speaking from the viewpoint of a mom whose kids are very successful human beings (despite having meeeee for a moom). I am gonna guess that the Aurora shooter’s mom had been very worried about her son and probably has been for most of his life. Is there something a little weird about my kid? Why can he not make friends? Did she try to intervene? Play dates? School counselors? Psychiatrists? Who knows. Maybe she tried her darndest to socialize him to no avail. Maybe *she* struggles to socialize. I do… And, when your kid gets to be 24, there’s not much you can do any more. Your child is an adult. I’m sure that the shooter’s mom is grieving almost as much as any of the people who actually lost loved ones in her son’s massacre. I think that her lack of surprise may indicate that she knew he was struggling to maintain his sanity. I also think that she had no idea about how to help him or any indication that he would do something as horrific as what he did. I am glad I am not the Aurora shooter’s mom and I hope the media leaves her alone.

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2012 at 6:33 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.