R.I.P. to all the victims of violence, and to those innocent people everywhere who's lives are taken by the ill-will of others.

Sadly and with all due respect, it is short-sighted to focus on just one tragedy. There are multiple tragedies in recent memory, and each makes the same point to me when I hear of them. When the newest deranged thing happens, the same thought runs through my head.

Will this all stop on December 22nd?

And why the fuck are people talking about gun-control? Guns have been around for hundreds of years. They are relatively simple mechanical devices. With modern technology, weaponry is simple to make. We should skip the obvious, politically expected discussion and get to the meat of the matter. Why do people all of a sudden want to shoot at groups of innocent people? To load up with weapons, and attack unsuspecting, innocents? Wtf motivates that? Identifying those types of individual situations before they escalate is a better answer than arguing further legislation about the minutia of regulations we already place on what amounts to clockwork and gunpowder wrappers.

I don't have the balls, and mine are iron-core, titanium and platinum dipped, diamond encrusted balls mind you, to say this on any non-anonymous social media outlet. But I will here:
Please, if you are feeling the urge to hurt other people, if you find yourself contemplating how best to exact your vengeance on a community or world that has pushed you over the edge, if you feel so lost that making another person suffer will make you feel better, for the love of god...just go kill yourself. If you don't have the guts, or the mindset, to ask for or seek legitimate help, then don't make other people suffer for your weakness. Suicide is a horrible thing to do to the people who love you. Don't make it worse by bringing a gang of innocent people with you. Let it be the only stand-up, honorable decision you make in this quest to quit. You coward.

EDIT: And btw, when will begin to realize that mental health-care is importantly behind the times? Can you imagine if this was your family member that did this? For-profit healthcare is killing people, is this a sign of that with regard to mental health services as well? Makes me wonder. Endedit.

Rather than banning guns, we should be deducing why people want to suddenly take aim at crowds. Why is it that any individual of the 21st century, with our myriad of options and global interconnectedness, would feel so desperate to do such a thing? Does it make them feel hard-core? Bad-ass? All-powerful? Has the capitalist experiment really bred such a number of weak minded cowards? Shouldn't we be examining that?

Is it futureshock, or the end of days? I don't know, but starting December 22nd, 2012, we should stop assuming an end of things and start living for the future. I can tell you from my own professional experience that the world ends for someone every day. There is nothing glamorous, or cool, or hard-core about it. It is the most common thing among us. Birth and death. Its what we can build in between the two, and leave behind for others, which counts and makes us special. Please choose to make those good things, not destruction. Destruction will happen whether we prompt it or not, it doesn't need any encouragement.

Given that the calendar changes made by Julius Caesar (the ones we have been counting time with for a couple of thousand years now) are not taken into account the Mayan calendar is now somewhere in 2018.

Some guy looked at the Mayan calendar in 1988 and decided that cause it ended that that meant some unwritten prophecy was being expressed,Mayan hieroglyphs and other archaelogical information does not anywhere state or imply that any "end" was decided upon by any Mayan.

Total BS.

Re: guns - do not even want to discuss.

Oh, I never meant to imply that I believe in any Doomsday looming overhead, save for that assured one that awaits us all in our own time. So yes, it is all total BS, and thanks for the calendric education. I always assumed the guy who was chiseling away at the next one got eaten by a jaguar or something. I merely wish to point out that enough people might believe, as to cause a shift, subconsciously even, toward thinking of a foreboding doom. And this group-think dynamic is causing the weaker, more violence-prone members of our collective society to act out in ways they might otherwise not.

As far as not wanting to discuss guns, hey who does. I don't want to "fight" about it, but I think it ought to be talked about. Maybe not here, but the point I would make here or anywhere is to be wary of bans, not necessarily on guns, but bans on anything. Making actions that infringe on the rights and liberties of others is fully within the mandate of any legitimate system. Banning, or making illegal, murder for instance. Totally fine. But banning things, or substances, or objects that can be recreated by anyone with the motivation to do so, is like using taxpayer money to wipe your ass. And a $5 bundle of TP will get you way farther than that five-dollar bill.

Me, I don't have any guns. I used to, long ago, but I used to have a bit of a horrible temper. Then, one day about 20 years ago, I was about to serve some hot lead sandwiches to some people who had really, really, really pissed me off. And I thought, what am I going to do afterward? Do I have to run? Do myself in? Fight it out with the cops? Wow, all of those options suck. Maybe I should rethink this. Maybe I should just mellow the fuck out.

And I did. I still snap and talk mad shit when provoked, but the hyperviolent edge is gone for good. I want to live, and not in a jail.

But that event scared the shit out of me. I got rid of everything in my house more dangerous than a steak-knife and I never thought twice about buying another one. I didn't need to be able to project power that easily. I've watched enough kung-fu movies, I can kill people with my bare hands. I shouldn't have the power to do it effortlessly. But I made that decision. Not some governmental agency, not a judge, me. And that's why it stuck.

As someone who's profession now is (it wasn't back then) to serve the families and ensure the legal, final disposition and wishes of the deceased, I find the jump to discuss banning guns a tad insensitive to the victims of violence. As a human being I find the rejection of the discussion twice as insensitive. Just because we talk about it doesn't mean we do it. But it should be part of the equation, in a logical sense.

Double posting because the reservation is for stupid shit anyways

In addition to the soapboxing above, I also feel that people should, in this post-doomsday-awaiting hyperglorious future I envision happening beyond Friday, ditch the entire debate on banning guns or anything else in favor of finding a real answer to the issue. That issue being the safety and security of individuals from other individuals in a free and open society. And the answer is force-fields.

Sure, I'm a douchebag tippy-typer on a message board in the far corners of the internet, waxing philosophical and postulating positivity. Some stupid idea like force-fields was bound to come out of my mouth. Or IP, whichever concept you prefer.

But I mean it. The idea that we could repel, reflect, or dissuade projectiles using focused beams of energy should not be relegated to sci-fi. It could be the most enlightened idea ever thought of in post-industrial society and we should pursue it, and give it away to everyone, planet-wide, for free. Then, the argument is over. Until then, someone has a point to make about everything, either way, pro or con, and it never ends. Making people bulletproof is fair to everyone, except the people who want to shoot other people.

The runner-up for most enlightened idea in post-industrial society goes to the concept of building a "green/electric" version of the Williams X-Jet (Wasp). Fuck off, roads and natural disasters. Flying people, independent of a transportation network, would be much happier, and safer, than any successful economy or social network could provide.

Slap the two ideas together and you have a winner. Flying bulletproof pod-people of the future. Mine would have gold spinning rims even though it doesn't need them, just because I'm ghetto.

There was a time when things like this simply didn't happen. Ever. Why? What's changed since then? That's the answer, not yet more legislation from power-hungry would-be tyrants.