Shootings Too Close to Home

I’m currently living less than an hour away from the mass shooting on Sunday, and quite frankly I’m thinking seriously about packing up and heading out of Dodge. Sure, it was lucky that other fellow happened to have his own shotgun, but in all likelihood 90% of the town’s population owns a weapon.

This is Texas. Here at Community First I have some serious concerns with recently learning that some residents possess weapons on site.  No one is supposed to.  (At least) one woman has a machete in her tent-home, and one tiny-home resident has a firearm, or so he announced for all to hear:

“I told that Cop I have a licensed gun in my house, and unless he has a search warrant to get the f__k off my porch!”

Doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. The community is made up of the ‘chronically homeless’ and a mixture of denominational volunteers and workampers such as me. Many of the residents have severe psychological problems for which they are treated, but you can’t force someone to take their meds.  At what point is an individual's rights more important than the majority's?



Over the course of 5 months I’ve learned to walk in another direction when I see So-and-So’s off, wandering, swinging arms and ranting, like you see on the street. I have compassion but I’m not a social or medical care specialist, and sometimes you can do more harm while you think you’re helping. I’ve learned that, too.

The psychotic woman with the machete fired off several threatening, racist-strewn emails to one of my newest neighbors: a woman, alone with her dog, who recently came off the streets.  Both new residents, their fast-friendship quickly went sour.  “Patricia” (not her real name) was distressed and came to me for support and advice, and that’s when I was told about the other’s machete. I guess now that's partly my responsibility. I was told that even when they do take away weapons, it doesn't prevent the culprits from obtaining more. Again, I question an individual over the group. I'd kick them out, no questions, no second chance. Rules are rules, particularly when it involves the safety of others, no? But what about my own extra-long carving knife or the meat cleaver?

So I’m sitting here after watching last night’s news broadcast, stunned yet not stunned, shaking my head that the President said it’s not a ‘gun thing’. Really?  After the Vegas shootings I wrote a piece that I was worried about idiots wanting to ‘top this’; and while the body count at Sutherland Springs isn’t the same, the shock, horror and rage is equal. Jeez, his mother-in-law wasn’t even in the church? I’m sure I’m not the only one who's had that thought.

How do you hide from these idiots?  Where can I volunteer, Iceland? If they can’t legally purchase their preferred weapon of mass destruction they’ll steal it, which is what worries me about this place. Forget the machete owner can be nice when she's taking her medication; and maybe the man with the gun is really a responsible owner. But what about everyone else in this place? If I overheard the gun-owner's remonstrations, I guarantee others did, too. And how easy would it be to slit open a tent to become the next Samarai Warrior?

Tomorrow will be the Grand Opening of the new Unity Hall, which has been under construction since I arrived in June. Big plans; lots of wealthy people invited; the place has been in a constant state of sprucing-up for days. They asked me to faux-paint a drain pipe to match the rocks. Truckloads of party-rental equipment; new fruit trees; they’ve even repainted the chess board.

Am I going? I don’t know. Walking BC pre-dawn this morning, I saw hundreds of grey metal party chairs lined up in nice, even rows before a stage area with giant posters and such. Through the over-sized windows I contemplated being cooped up in that place with nowhere to run. They are installing some sort of security gate (the other day some teenagers from elsewhere just drove off the property with someone’s golf cart), but my questions is:

What about the people already inside our ‘gated community’? The chances of somebody flying off the handle here and causing destruction tomorrow is just as likely to happen in your neighborhood.

Some LOSER (call them what they are, like the Congressman repeatedly calling this one a COWARD) doesn't get the promotion, fights with his wife, jumps in his SUV, crashes through the garage door ‘cause it looks macho on TV, runs over the Postman and plows down the sidewalk where your children are walking to school.

Who’s to blame? The people broadcasting such crap? Ahhh…the Harvey Weinsteins of the world; are we surprised?  They’ve been gradually disseminating previously unfathomable smut and gore during Prime Time for the past, what 20 years, so that impressionable people are as hooked as on opiates.

It’s never enough. There's a rudimentary pattern following topsy-turvy events like stock market crashes, wars and terrorist acts: people look for diversions from reality through ENTERTAINMENT, and why not? But the quality of that entertainment should be just as prominent an issue as gun control and sexual abuse, issues not necessarily mutually exclusive. 

God, X-rated photos, shops and peep shows were always available, but not in our living rooms.