GUN APPRECIATION DAY?

Celebrating “Gun Appreciation Day” begs the question; just exactly what are we celebrating?

Are we celebrating  the fact that, since the invention of the gun, humans have been able to “terminate” billions of their own kind, not to forget the billions of other creatures who got in the cross hairs?

Are we celebrating the fact that, with the advent of the gun, we are able to comfortably be indifferent to the carnage the gun produces because we can do it at a safe distance and no longer need to experience first hand the life blood being sucked out of our targets?

Are we celebrating that we are getting so good at it that we can now sit someone in front of a computer screen with joystick in hand who, by the squeeze of a button, can annihilate human beings 1,000 of miles away in the blink of an eye?

Sure, sometime we use our guns in self-defense to protect ourselves and loved ones from someone else with a gun intent to do us harm. Or we are driven to use our guns out of revenge or vengeance: what we righteously refer to as “justice.” But more often than not we do it for fun, or what we like to call “sport”. This, for some, is a real cause to celebrate by hanging the lifeless heads of their prey in front of their fireplaces. Somewhat ghoulish, don’t you think?  

Unfortunately there are many Americans who have nothing to celebrate about on Gun Appreciation Day. For them it’s a day that will reopen old wounds and remind them of the loss of loved ones who’s lives were taken by someone with a gun.

My question to those who are coming out to celebrate on “Gun Appreciation Day” is, what is it, exactly, that you are celebrating? Explain it to me please because I can’t come up with anything other than painful reasons to mourn rather than celebrate.

I am not at a loss for words to describe what Gun Appreciation Day symbolizes; Despicable, Insensitive, Sociopathic, Malicious, Cruel, Abhorrent, Disgusting, Unconscionable, Sadistic, Insane, Immoral, Inhumane, Senseless, and though the list can be much longer I think you get the idea. Especially for those who lost  their loved ones to the gun at places like Stony Brook. For them, Gun Appreciation Day just rips open the still fresh wounds of loss of their fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, and especially their very young and completely innocent and vulnerable children.

For these human beings and the countless others that have suffered because of the gun there is nothing to celebrate on Gun Appreciation Day. Something you might want to think about while celebrating

Johann Wagener 1-18-13