Running for Your Life: Guns, Guns, Guns

American hunter, bring’ em up the north side

Guns, guns, guns
Run, take the money, here’s a bullet for your boyfriend
Guns, guns, guns
Eagle all gone, and no more caribou
Guns, guns, guns
You be the red king, I'll be the yellow pawn ….

When I think of the title above, for sixty years of life – the first thirty-two in Canada – these lyrics from the Guess Who were first to come to mind. That all changed with the shocking events of San Bernardino.  My wife, Mary Morris, has done us all a profound service by saying what must be said – and helped me to the realization that we need more than the poetic resistance of rock ’n’ roll to foster real change.  Her comment, that I’m repeating in its entirety below, was posted on Facebook on Dec. 3. Since then, it has been “liked” by more than 400 people, drawn 51 comments, and sparked 39 shares. I couldn’t be prouder of Mary for speaking out in such an incredibly moving and powerful way.

“I need to say this. We are insane. You cannot go out and get married or drive a car in this country without a license, some delays, a learner's permit. Why can anyone walk into a store and walk out with an AK47? How can there not be background checks? You cannot marry ten women or have more than a certain number of DUI. It is against the law not to wear a seatbelt. Yet anyone can amass literally a stockpile of weapons intended only to kill and there's no database that red flags this and no law that impedes it. We look at the horrors all around the world and fail to fully realize that these same horrors are happening right here and that there are things that we can do to curtail them. Forgive this rant, but I find it unbearable. I am committing myself to doing something about this. Whether it is voting or donating or supporting the Everytown movement in any way I can. Because I can no longer be proud of being who I am in a country that does not stop people who are clearly mentally ill from destroying innocent people who happen to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Next: Running for Your Life: On the Road Again