Welp.

This is ridiculous. 

I wrote something after Vegas but then didn't post it and I went back and forth with whether or not to write this post for a few reasons.

1)   This is repetitive. I feel like a broken record. I feel like I'm beating a dead horse...oh wait is that a faint pulse? 

• I get repetitive, I get annoyed with it too. Thoughts and prayers are repetitive. I don't know how many Congress members must have a template they just throw up on social media saying that. But I truly think I am on the right side of this. I can confidently say I'll be able to look back in 50 years and be proud tha--omg in 50 years I'll be over 80, omg ew. So gross.   

2) I don't want to come off preachy. I want to come off as rational and logical. I feel that line blurs for me.

• I could preach the gospel of Selena in my sleep though.. just saying.... 

3)      I want everyone to like me.

• It’s impossible and unreasonable, but I don’t care. I want it. I need it. And it bothers me that for every single thing I ever post publicly there is at least one person who I don’t even know exists in this world that has read or watched it and automatically said “I hate that girl, Chandra.” And I  just want to be like "But I'm a peach! I put the pal in principal." but, like... I have no idea how to contact that person to tell them I'm a peach princiPAL.

Then I thought about a song from my favorite Broadway musical about the founding father who apparently is NOT on Mt. Rushmore…(and Mt. Rushmore apparently isn’t on or near Mt. Vernon--- talking to you 24 year old Chandra) Aaron Burr sings to Alexander Hamilton “Don’t let them know what you’re against or what you’re for.” later in the song Hamilton says to Burr  “If you stand for nothing, Burr, what will you fall for?”

So with that I will tell you I have 2 things; one I will stand for and one I will stand against, both until my last breath; I will ALWAYS STAND FOR better/stronger gun laws… and I will ALWAYS STAND AGAINST ABC’s decision to cancel Happy Endings (never not over it).

I need to confess that there is so much egg on my face for thinking that something would have actually changed after that time that one guy shot almost 600 hundred people and killed 58 in a matter of minutes.

I accidentally slid because for the briefest moment I had forgotten that we live in a country where 20 first graders were murdered in their classroom and we did nothing.  So now I need you to please pardon me if I don't have any faith that something is going to change now that only 14 children (26 total people) were murdered ...in a church... on a Sunday...

I feel it redundant to say, but no one is trying to repeal and replace thoughts and prayers. We just need to add something to it like...I don't know... maybe mental health reform? 

That seems like an issue all sides are about. Two of the highest ranking republican officials always seem to think that when there is a mass shooting, the issue isn't guns, it's mental health, and they have both been strong and vocal proponents about it.................

 Speaker of the House Paul Ryan tweeted his very first tweet about mental health Dec. 1, 2015 he said “We need to make fixing out mental health system a priority.” 

He wasn’t messing around because his next tweet on mental health was 7 months later on June 15, 2016, 3 days after the Pulse Nightclub Shooting. He tweeted again about it in July 2016, a day before the Dallas Police ambush. Over the next 5 months he tweeted twice about mental health reform. On December 21, 2016 he tweeted about mental health ...and that was the last we heard from Paul Ryan because…19 total tweets on mental health out of the 13,000 tweets he's written since January 2009 definitely screams priority.

It screams priority that earlier this year Paul Ryan's house passed a bill to reverse the law signed by President Bush that prohibits veterans who have clear mental health issues (i.e. PTSD, schizophrenia) from owning a firearm. The law reversal bill would remove the information of their mental health status from the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) and allow them to purchases guns. This bill is just sitting in the Senate right now. (super happy that the Senate continuously is unable to pass legislation)

Then Trump... Trump... the guy who literally just said yesterday about the Texas shooting "this isn't a guns issue" but "this is a mental health problem at the highest level."  in February of this year overturned an Obama EO that made the Social Security Administration report to the (NICS) any individual who was not able to work due to mental impairment and needed a payee (a third party) to manage their Social Security checks. Yes. Donald Trump thinks that if you have a mental health issues that are SO bad that it keeps you from having employment and you can’t even manage your money on your own… YOU DESERVE A GUN. I mean...how do I-- how do I even dissect this?

Let's segue into how is it possible that a guy who received a bad conduct discharge from the U.S. Air-force for assaulting not only his wife but also his child was able to legally buy firearms? Apparently a bad conduct discharge isn't grounds from prohibiting someone from obtaining a gun, but being court martial-ed for abuse is...but that doesn't matter if that information is never put into NICS.... clearly there's a huge glitch in the way we are doing things. According to the majority of our leadership though the way we fix the glitch is to just think about it and then pray about it for a day or two and then go back to lying to the everyday American that they are going to receive a huge tax cut.

Okay, here's the part where I get mad in the form of questions.  Let's go, Alex.

HOW ARE YOU OKAY WITH THIS?  How are you okay with these mass shootings? How do we allow ourselves to feel for them and in a few days forget about it and move on? Are we okay with accepting that this is just our way of life now? Something we have to live with now? This is just the price of freedom? We have to live with the fact that churches and elementary schools, and hospitals, and concerts aren't safe places? That is unacceptable to me. This isn't war torn Syria. When someone writes "not again" on social media, I just think they are the definition of insanity. What do you mean "not again?" Why did you think this wouldn't happen again? Nothing has changed since the last time. 

And do people not see that the chance of them being personally affected by a shooting is growing bigger and bigger? A mass shooting is a shooting of at least 4 people and there are so many that don't make the news. I feel like that is what gives us this false sense of "there's no way that'll happen to me or anyone I know." Play that game, Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but instead of Kevin Bacon, play Six Degrees of the Las Vegas shooting... I bet a lot of you can get there. Since the Vegas shooting on October 2nd, there have been 39 other mass shootings. 39. In 34 days. 

Alex, what is ... Do people not see the hypocrisy when after a mass shooting someone says we need stronger laws and they get attacked with "it's too soon to politicize" yet when a "terrorist" attack happens that side immediately goes to "we have to ban all Muslims. Now!" 

Alex, I also find it funny that it's cried out that the left wants to "ban all guns" (when that's not the case at all) but for argument's sake lets say that is the case:

*mass shooting happens*
Left: We have to ban ALL guns!

*"terrorist" attack happens*
Right: We have to ban ALL Muslim people!

I feel I need to reiterate that no one wants to ban all guns but just step outside of yourself for a moment and think about how one side wants to ban (not really, though) all of an object and the other side wants to ban an entire people...
 
Alex what is... Why is the federal government not allowed to do gun control research? Was it a coincidence that the CDC's budget was cut the same amount of money that was used the prior year for gun-control research?  How would it harm our country if the CDC was able to do the research? They do research on public health crisis, right? I would love to see them do a study on what's more likely to happen; are you more like to get shot or get West Nile? (I think there is a game show idea somewhere in there).

Why are people okay with having to register their cars, but they aren't about to register their guns? Because someone is going to come and take your guns away? Who is putting that nonsense in your head? Nobody wants to take your guns. If you don't deserve a gun because you're a proven threat... yeah, okay, yeah maybe we do, but if you are an upstanding citizen, there's no reason for you to not be able to possess one. Why are there so many loopholes? Is it really irrational to think that we should have an electronic list of guns registered because guns are literally made for killing? That is literally their purpose. Literally. They aren't purely decorative.

 Alright. I think I'm done for now. I don't know how to conclude this... I gotta go eat.
 I'm going to go eat salmon.
Lates.