Employees at gym recently insisted that I had to have my picture taken “for security purposes.” They had asked before about taking my picture and I said no. Reason is, almost all photos of me are unflattering.
But the gym was no longer asking; it was telling me I had to have my picture taken for the security of my gym. It is, I am sure, a reaction to the shootings at Northern Illinois University.
As you can imagine, my gym is not a high-security kind of place; if someone wants to walk in there and start shooting, he will. I don’t think asking for an ID is going to be a deterrent.
Why isn’t anyone talking about the erosion of civil liberties in favor of a different interpretation of the 2nd Amendment?
Why are the citizens of this country being held hostage by the 2nd Amendment, hindering themselves from life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in favor of the right to purchase a gun?
If people were not allowed to buy these weapons created expressly for the taking of human life, then there would be fewer mass killings.
I know that if a person were absolutely not allowed to own more than one gun and certainly no semi-automatic weapons, then the students at Virginia Tech and NIU would have had a fighting chance.
Some people are even arguing that there should be legislation requiring mental health professionals to disclose to police those patients they feel are a danger to themselves or society. If people are a danger to themselves or to society, then they should be hospitalized, not watched over by law enforcement.
The fact is we simply do not have the resources to keep a 24-hour vigil over all the crazy people in this world.
I am not suggesting that the 2nd Amendment be repealed; I am suggesting that we broaden our interpretation of the 2nd Amendment in response to so much tragedy. Serious gun control is the only way to stop this kind of violence from happening in America. It is the only way.
