Our City: Shooting at Fort Lauderdale Airport

We’ve been asking ourselves… what exactly will it take?

On Friday, the airport we frequent on average more than once a week, made us the most recent city to become a #pray for hashtag.  Five people were killed, six seriously injured, and countless people went through an unthinkably tragic trauma.

We have opinions–strong ones–about gun violence.  We believe that there are ways to mitigate the sheer volume of gun related deaths in our country.  We believe that innocent people should not be senselessly mowed down when waiting for their bags at the carousel.  We believe that some of this can be prevented.

We don’t believe that this is going to go away (evil people will do evil things with whatever resources they have available). We don’t believe that everyone should turn in their guns (It’s called gun control, not gun elimination).  And we don’t believe that it’s easy to change anyone’s minds as it pertains to the second amendment.

But we’d like to talk about it.  We have charts that we’ve studied, we have read the actual second amendment, from “well regulated” to “not be infringed”.  We understand the argument from a federal power vs. states rights viewpoint.  The fact of the matter is that some states make it easier to purchase an AK-47 than it is to own a dog or sell milk.  That seems silly to us.

There are thousands of articles out there like this. Thousands of people spouting off these facts, and displaying these charts, and listing these victims, and pointing towards these petitions, and giving these Congressional email addresses.

But right now, we want to open a discussion.  Because we would rather there be a conversation than a one-sided diatribe.

If you are against strict federal gun control laws: Why do you feel that gun ownership should have a wide window of minimum requirements?  What happens during a firearm purchase in Louisiana is vastly different than what happens in California.

On a personal level, if you own a firearm, why? Do you think it should be easy to own one?

After 9/11, the federal government formed the TSA.  And yeah, it has caused headaches for all of us, but we are all behind it, because we believe it makes us safer.  So… what will it take for us to all get behind more thorough federal regulations of gun ownership?  If tragedy after tragedy in movie theaters, universities, grocery stores, nightclubs, churches don’t do it… If 20 first-graders don’t do it… What is going to do it?