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Death By Firearm, Again, in the Land of the Second Amendment by Wayne Johnson

 As I mull over this tragic regular occurrence that take place only in the USA, I can honestly say I’m saddened, but certainly not shocked. That said, I can’t imagine the agony the families are going through. My heart truly goes out to them.


To the rest of America, WTF is wrong with you people?! Is the second amendment so sacred that children’s lives lay upon its alter of sacrifice? Lord knows you play pretty fast and loose with a few amendments…treating them more like suggestions. But that second amendment, that is sacrilegious?

What a load of shite…

The US Constitution was created in 1787, by well-meaning but flawed men, as we all are. They wrote it at a time when the USA was expanding and firearms were frankly a tool of the trade. Firearms were also muzzle loading weapons. A well trained British infantryman could fire 3 shots a minute out of the smoothbore Brown Bess. Where the ball went is anyone’s guess…

Fast forward to today with the advances in firearms technology and such. Surely the founding Fathers didn’t envision this?! Somewhere along the line the intent of the 2nd amendment was hijacked. The USA certainly hasn’t needed a well-regulated militia since post-civil war.

I was a Canadian soldier for 41 years, 21 of them in the Infantry, mostly in a Rifle Company. I cut my teeth on the FNC1A1 7.62 rifle. A fine rifle that I look back on fondly. In my 41 years, particularly as an Infantryman, I have fired The Browning 9mm hi power pistol, the Sterling SMGand and a variety of other firearms. I’ve thrown all manner of grenades, fired the whole family of Anti -Tank weapons back in the day, 66mm disposable launcher, 84mm Carl Gustav a brute to fire, 106mm recoilless Rifle, heck I’ve even fired the 3.5 Rocket Launcher.

It was Machine Guns that I tended to specialize in. From the C5 GPMG, basically a .30 cal MG, the M2 HMG .50 cal a personal favourite, and the FN C6 GPMG. Heck I’ve even cracked out a couple of 105mm HE rounds from a Howitzer. Additionally I’ve fire countless weapons, from NATO Allied ones to AK47’s.

As a result I have tinnitus, but it was fun…

And looking back, sure it was fun, but it was also just part of the job. Basically they were tools of the trade, to be treated with respect and safe handling at all times. I was taught to treat every weapon as if it were loaded. To work the action and confirm it was safe. I couldn’t begin to guess the number of rounds of all calibres I’ve fired. Literally countless thousands of rounds.

You might think that I yearn for it. I don’t! I miss firearms, aka the tools of the trade, about as much as a retired plumber misses unclogging toilets.

What well and truly baffles me is how plainly obvious to decent society it is that the USA has a gun problem. More accurately a gun culture issue that has developed into an incurable cancer. Yet Americans seem oblivious to it… Just what is it about guns, of which there are more than people? What is it about guns and the 2nd Amendment that Americans seem so enamoured with? What makes the 2nd amendment, as it stands currently, more revered than the lives of children? Surely that's a fair question… it is like a social cancer, the prognosis is inevitably terminal.

Let’s be honest, events like this are a weekly garden variety event in the USA.

Domestic shootings and such don’t even make the news. Every time a more “public” massacre is perpetrated, we hear the same tired talking points from politicians, media, law enforcement and, of course, “Thoughts and Prayers…”.

Not to put too fine a point on it, WTF have thoughts and prayers ever done for a 6 year old child riddled with 5.56mm rounds from an AR15 that’s been legally purchased? What good do they do the grieving families?

I honestly cannot imagine what sending children to school in America must be like. The stress of wondering…is it going to happen at my child’s school?

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