Hello world. I watch the news daily to keep up with the happenings of the world. I rarely, if ever, watch any local news because I’m not from this area where I’m imprisoned. I watch national news, specifically for legal and political reasons because of the slight possibility that it’ll effect me as a prisoner. My point is that I’ve seen more gun violence than anything else. Every other day there’s another mass shooting. I would mention that these shootings spiked when the recent POTUS took office, but that’s a whole other story. I’ve been watching these politicians go back and forth, making this a partisan issue instead of a human survival and preservation issue. Democrats are asking for gun control by way of an assault rifle ban and Republicans are denying it because they claim that the kind of gun reform that’s being asked for will infringe upon their second amendment rights. Apparently, their right to possess a firearm that was designed specifically to kill people in bunches overrules the egregious loss of human life on the soil of their own country. Politicians are elected by the people to work for the people, however, how can they be working for the people who are dying by not making an effort to save them? In response, Republicans are offering more in depth background checks for those wanting to purchase a gun. That really isn’t a solution, seeing as how I could just get someone who can pass the background check to buy a gun and report it stolen so I can do whatever I want with it without it leading back to the purchaser. Or, I could be a person who can pass an extensive background check, buy an assault rifle legally and still go out and murder a plethora of people. Personally, I think the NRA are the best ventriloquists we’ve ever seen with political dummies, but that’s just me. People are dying and it seems no political party, gender, religion, ethnicity or age is off limits. None of our differences are making a difference to a shooter. We’ve been shown that a myriad of times by a church in Carolina, a night club in Florida, Sandy Hook, Wal-Mart in El Paso, Dayton in Ohio, Odessa in Texas, a mosque, Parkland school and the concert in Las Vegas. Of course, that’s nowhere near the full list, so sadly, I could go on, but you get the picture. It’s gotten to the point where children are having drills on what to do if there’s an active shooter in the building and politicians are having a(what I think is insane) conversation about arming teachers. One woman went as far as to introduce the idea of training children in first aid and how to treat a gunshot wound at school. As for the shooter, every one of them that’s white has a “mental illness” and every one of them that’s middle eastern is a terrorist. To my knowledge, I have yet to hear of a mass shooter that was Black or Hispanic. I have also yet to hear any of the politicians call this what it really is. Domestic terrorism. How can we have so many college educated and governmentally experienced people who feel such a tribal fealty to their party that they allow it to overrule their logic and reason? Naturally, it makes you wonder what kind of tune these politicians would be singing if their loved ones were victims. Their husband or wife? Their son or daughter? To assuage any ambiguity, I am NOT advocating violence of any kind towards political families or anyone else for that matter. I, however, do know that your perspective on something can drastically change when the issue goes from removed spectating to personal involvement. I’ll concede to the fact that an assault rifle wasn’t used every single time multiple people were killed, but those instances are rare. For the record, I’m not a Republican, nor am I a Democrat. I am a fan or logic, reason and old fashioned common sense though. I think it’s ridiculous to say that every person who commits a mass shooting is mentally ill. A few of them may be, but not all. For instance, the shooting at the Walmart. I would never believe he was mentally ill. He went in and essentially cased the store for Hispanic people before he came back and opened fire. If that were me (a black man), it’d have been called premeditated, not mentally ill. Add to that the fact that he was a Trump supporter and that Trump regularly spews negative foolishness about Hispanics being murderers, gang members and rapists. What does that equal? It equals a very competent person who was sending a message. For me, the name of the rifle says it all. Assault. They were made precisely for military use for killing. Civilians shouldn’t have access to them. For those who hunt and all others who advocate the keeping of the rifles that don’t benefit in some way monetarily, I ask is it truly, absolutely necessary to have an assault rifle? You have handguns, and rifles designed to hunt with. AK 47’s, M-16’s, MCX’s, AR-15’s and all other assault rifles shouldn’t be in the discussion. I know that removing the rifles won’t stop people from killing, but it’ll slow them down a hell of a lot if they don’t have something that fires rapidly with thirty rounds or better before they have to reload. Don’t you think? From my understanding, Democrats aren’t trying to take all guns, just those particular ones. The question you really have to ask yourself is, is the saving of lives worth the sacrifice of the rifles? So…is it? Peace.

Rodney Fenner
DOC #1436377