By Landis Lain
I am so sick of active shooter drills. They do not work. They do not keep people from being killed. I am sick of getting this call. So disheartened at hearing the number of people killed and injured. I am heartbroken and enraged that there is no safe place. We cannot go to grade school, middle school, high school, the grocery store, worship service, the park, or a college campus without having to worry about being gunned down by some evil, disaffected idiot.
The latest shooting at Michigan State University (MSU) broke my heart all over again. All of my friends and family are traumatized. Many are weeping and distraught that such horror has happened at our beloved campus. Some poor parents’ lives are now destroyed because they sent their children to college to further their education. Some evil monster decided that today was the day to wreak havoc and chaos on a beloved campus and murder innocent people.
Students cannot concentrate on learning if they have to fear being shot in school. I do not want any more thoughts from elected officials who do nothing but tweet their sorrow or Facebook post their prayers. They can keep those officious and false condolences to themselves if they are not willing to do something to stop this awful carnage. Our children should not be traumatized by bomb threats and gunmen at school. We should be able to attend a concert or a play without worrying about getting shot. We should be able to grocery shop or attend worship services and not have to worry about getting killed by some idiot with an assault rifle or any gun. Folks should not be walking down a street with weapons in their hands. There is no damned safe place in America and that is horrifying to contemplate.
The National Rifle Association should be disbanded and outlawed. Assault rifles should be completely banned. Every MSU student, every parent, every Spartan Nation affiliate, every hospital Emergency Room personnel, 911 operator, and first responder should stage a sit-in at the Michigan Capital until they ban these guns or at least put some safety laws and regulations in place to protect our children and each and every person in the State of Michigan.
There are fifty thousand MSU students. Count in the staff, professors, and administrators. Count in the entire East Lansing, Okemos, and Lansing community who have been traumatized this week by bomb threats and this mass shooting. Count the 100,000 family members of the current MSU students. Every sorority and fraternity needs to head to the capital and demand action. The alumni should be roaring. We should all be sufficiently traumatized to make that action happen. We should all be sick and tired of being sick and tired. Tired of carnage. Tired of murder. Tired of sitting and watching the news because it has not yet occurred in our community. Evil is here. We must stop it. Enough is enough.
