#251 March for our lives march

I was watching the PBS NewsHour last night and they kind of went through all of the mass shootings since Columbine. Every single time this happens there is outrage and we ask congress isn't there something we can do just to slow down how easy it is to get machine guns. Isn't there a way to just pull back a little.

The answer congress has given is the gun lobby pays us so much that we are not allowed to care so you're on your own.

Right after the Parkland murders The young people who survived organized a march on Washington for one month after the shooting. I spoke to India and said I'm in the camp of getting a plane ticket to Washington and marching with the young people to ban all assault weapons. I really don't care whether the Trump Republican Second Amendment people like me or not.

Diary

I listen to the logic on the side the right to bear death as it pertains to banning automatic weapons. If you made it illegal to own or sell automatic and semi-automatic assault rifles including all of the little kits online to make them fully automatic, you would be told it would be useless. The argument is that making something illegal doesn't make it go away. Going after the people that have these products doesn't make it go away.

I'm not really Pro heroin or Pro cocaine or Pro crack or Pro meth, but I have noticed the same people that cling to their guns with their cold dead fingers want all of these drugs eradicated. They believe that we should with all the national treasure needed go after the people that buy sell and own it no matter how much it cost. It's okay to do this even though you can make the same argument.

Banning a product or substance doesn't make it go away so why ban it. Why doesn't the logic hold up in both cases instead of just the one.

Journal entry

February 26, 2018

Well, I talked to India and it is official we are Marching on Washington on March 24th with the young people to try to ban assault weapons which I know it's not likely to help but you got to try.

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If you want an assault weapon for fun you should be able to have them in a locker at a shooting range. You can go out there and just shoot up the desert all you want to but they can't leave the premises.

I saw today while I was flipping channels that Pat Robertson of the 700 Club spoke.

He said he thought that there was no place in civilized society for assault weapons and that it in no way was what the Second Amendment had intended.

I was surprised and thrilled because a lot of people that watch Pat Robertson vote. Go Pat.

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Here is something I just sent to Dick's sporting goods and I would suggest anybody that is like minded to do the same.

I want to thank you at the corporate level with all my heart for taking a stand pertaining to the gun issue. The decision Dick's made to stop selling all those assault weapons and high magazine clips is the bravest thing ever. I will buy everything I can from Dick's for the rest of my life.

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I just read on the internet how the NRA does not want people on the no-fly list to be unable to purchase weapons.

The number one most important thing in the world is to be able to buy guns anytime anywhere and for anything because that's my right I get to do anything I want no matter what. No one can tell me what to do because I was picked on too much as a little kid and now I have power.

Well, I read the statement from the NRA and I was surprised but appalled that the ACLU agrees.

They said they don't support terrorists buying guns. They pointed out that when somebody on the no-fly list tries to make a gun purchase the local authorities are informed and it's up to them to do whatever they feel is best.

They don't want someone who is accidentally on the list to pre prevented from buying assault rifles. They want to protect the rights of the people to buy assault weapons because you wouldn’t want to ever slow down a plot to murder people. Sometimes the ACLU gets it so wrong.

The FBI even said we get so many threats and so many tips that we can't possibly respond to them all so we just have to pick out the ones that are the scariest and then we may or may not investigate because we only have so many resources.

Why don't you use the same logic of due process at the TSA checkpoint?

A person on the no-fly list tries to buy ticket and of course we want them to have due process so we go ahead and let them fly and do whatever they want but we notify the local authorities that they're trying to blow up something and maybe they'll get back to us.

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The NRA was developed to teach young and new rifle/gun owners how to properly use their weapon.

That's what they need to do and they need to stop all this other reckless insanity that helps feed the gun lust and the bloodlust.

Once a person is so heavily armed meaning one in every glove box one of my boots one under my chest behind my coat 10 in my living room one under my pillow. It eventually creates an insatiable desire to blow somebody's brains out.

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March 14, 2018 ·

We went to a school this morning that a website suggested was participating in a student walkout protest . Once we got to the school, I started kind of circling the property looking for a place to park and for any people that had showed up.

It’s kind of occurred to me that it might have looked like I was stalking the school and that they might think I was a shooter so that was a little weird.

Right near 10am we saw a handful of people showing their support and we joined in and it was great to meet fast friends.

Obviously, any of the students that wanted to walk out were told they would have to do that out back towards the baseball field not right out in the street where they would be like a security risk.

It was fun to be an activist today.

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March 23, 2018 ·

Well, we are in Baltimore in our hotel and we are all getting ready to go to the National Mall tomorrow at noon to March for our lives. Very stoked. I mentioned the march to our son Ben and Savannah our daughter. Ben is more of the activist and he said he would love to join us. Savannah was a little more spooked and she said those things get kind of out of hand so she didn't want to be in controversial situations. Each kid has every right to follow their own voice so we didn’t pressure her further.

Ben drove his car up to Baltimore and he met us at the hotel where we had made reservations. When he arrived in town we got a bite to eat and he slept on the pull-out sofa or something.

He would love to have brought his dog Azura but that doesn't always go well at protests type places. I believe that he said pets were not allowed on the mall during a march this large. He found a way to board her or get a pet sitter.

The next morning we got started and it was so exciting we went up to the park and ride area and got on the subway. When we got to the Washington Mall where the epicenter of the March was centered that subway station had been closed. There were so many people there they could not accept any more humans there. To hear that there were so many people here was really exciting.

We were so pleased to be engaged in something so powerful. We got off the subway and walked backwards towards where the stage was. The crowd was too thick to get any closer than a block away.

We watched the speeches from a jumbo screen and you know you can't have everything. If the problem is so many people participated we couldn't get right up to the real stage that's okay because we wanted there to be a big turnout and it was.

Later it was determined that turnout was between 1.2 and 2 million people. It was one of the largest protests in American history. I look back with great pleasure to have been a part of history in this way.

We had such a great time at the March. There were so many signs that I just thought these were some good ones.

We said goodbye to Ben and flew to Tampa and settled back in at Hudson. Since the March I have formed a statement that I want to make into a bumper sticker.

I’ve listened to you and this is what I hear you saying. I stand firm on the second amendment. In order for me to enjoy this right some people are going to be slaughtered now and then in mass shootings so get over it already.

We came to Hudson for half of January until the end of March. As April arrived, I decided it was time to go. I could have stayed a year but I just kind of became soured mostly over Connie's Dog and just the rundown nature of the area. It also occurs to one that we came here to dodge winter and now its April. It seemed like it was time to head north.