My letter to the editor following FL school massacre

You can read the original article here.

This is a hard one to write. It needs to be written though because after the recent, tragic shooting in Florida, all we hear are those advocating for the removal of constitutional rights. 

The tragedy in Florida hurts my heart. I found myself tearing up when watching CNN interview the two sisters who had texted each other back and forth in the midst of the chaos and downright terror. I couldn’t begin to imagine the kind of fear that gripped the hearts of those two sisters. I think of the close bond my own sister and I have and could never imagine having to text her under the same terrible circumstance.

I’m not pretending I know what it’s like to be in such a devastating situation or to endure such loss as these students have. Because I don’t. I may never know what these students, teachers, families, and friends are experiencing in their hearts and minds today.

All I can know is how I feel.

I know that as a twenty-three-year-old woman I do not always feel safe walking home from work in the dark.

I know that as a single woman I do not always feel safe in my own house.

I know that as a conservative woman my values are attacked after a man with mental illness murders 17 innocent high school students.

I know that not everyone understands what I feel, but that does not give him or her the right to take away my right. My right to feel safe. My right to feel secure. My right to protect myself.

And because I know how I feel, I am a gun owner.

Being a gun owner does not make me an inhumane person. Being a gun owner makes me a responsible citizen. I’m taking responsibility for my own safety and security.

I’m afraid many have jumped on the bandwagon of playing the blame game. These blame-shifters must be careful of letting emotion cloud their vision.

Benjamin Franklin once warned that “those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Of course I don’t want the mentally sick and deranged to have access to a firearm, but should we be taking away the constitutional right to safety from twenty-three-year-old women?

I pray to God I never have to draw my sidearm or have to text my sister in fear that I may be sending my final text to her, but carrying lends me some small measure of confidence. Some small measure of assurance that I may have a fighting chance.

Don’t all Americans deserve a fighting chance?