Poquetanuck Village
Preston CT
I spent my childhood in Preston, Connecticut. It is a small town — like Newtown — with a picturesque landscape that looks like a Christmas card come to life.
I went to school in Poquetanuck Village, where my teachers made sure I knew I was loved. And I spent my summers swinging on ropes and climbing trees and eating fresh strawberries from the backyard patch.
On Saturdays, my father would work in the garden. He would grow all those icky vegetables I never wanted to eat. But soon, he had to build a fence around the garden ’cause some animals were eating our food.
When he discovered that the animals were digging under the fence to get our food, my father decided he’d had enough. One night, he put his coat on, got his rifle, and was going to go outside to shoot the animals eating our food.
But, when his little girl realized that he was going to kill the animals, she cried. She cried so hard. She begged him not to kill the animals. And my father, holding his precious little girl as she cried in his arms, listened to his child.
My father never did go outside that night. And it wasn’t too long afterwards that he got rid of his rifles.
My father chose the heart of his child over his right to bear arms.
Being a father was more important to him than being a man.
Today, America — on Christmas Eve — our children are crying. They are wailing in agony and with anguish. They are screaming and begging and pleading for us to choose their innocence over our arrogance.
And today, we stand at the threshold of history. The world we thought we knew, and the one we had hoped to leave to our children, is gone forever.
Because The Newtown Massacre left twenty children dead.
And six adults.
There is no going back. And I have no doubt that future generations will look back upon our actions today and see these crucial hours as the ones that will have shaped their world and defined their destiny.
Our decisions in the midst of this tragic midnight will bless, or curse, our grandchildren. They will see our faith and our courage or our fear and our cowardice. They will see us as the ones who demanded a sincere, rational set of well-regulated laws or an insane, obscene reaction that hopelessly passed our horrific sins onto our children and grandchildren.
We will be the ones who accepted responsibility for the pathetic, violent gun culture we created that killed those twenty precious kids or we will be the ones who denied our sins and always blamed somebody else for the horrors we have created.
We will be the ones who stood in unity to protect our children or we will be the ones who betrayed their future to our fears. And we will be the ones who supported The Second Amendment or we will be the ones who backed The NRA.
Because for far, far too long, The NRA has claimed an exclusive interpretation of The Second Amendment. They boast four million members, but three hundred and forty-six million Americans have a different interpretation.
And that one percent of the population will no longer dictate how the other ninety-nine percent of us live or think. Because we are not naive enough to think that guns, more guns, and even more guns — and putting guns in our schools — will solve the gun problem.
The debate is over. And the conversation has ended. The only question left concerning gun control is, How quickly and effectively can it be done?
We have seen the horrors of our sins, our very own culture of violence, visited upon our precious children. And this is a knowledge we cannot lose.
From this moment forward, every citizen of The United States bears the burden of, and shares the responsibility for, the massacres that take place on our soil.
Because we know. We know, and we have seen, our own evil. We must act, and responsibly so, in these most crucial hours. Our children, our only future, depend upon us to do it right and to get it done.
The Newtown Massacre proved it: America must, like my father, chose our children over our right to bear arms. We must put their innocence before our arrogance. No decent, loving parent would dare to disagree.
Let me say first: I find this post extremely inflammatory, and extremely arrogant.
– ” She begged him not to kill the animals. And my father, holding his precious little girl as she cried in his arms, listened to his child.
My father never did go outside that night. And it wasn’t too long afterwards that he got rid of his rifles.
My father chose the heart of his child over his right to bear arms.
Being a father was more important to him than being a man.”
I propose that he was in fact NOT being a father, rather he was caving in to his daughters feelings. Rather than teach a life lesson, he created a feeling of deserving/entitlement.
Being a father does not mean that every whim our children have is right and that we as fathers should encourage these feelings. My children and their concerns and feelings are extremely important to me. I cherish them above everything on this earth (save my Wife). I love them more than you can understand (not having kids).
My Heavenly Father does not cave to my wishes, rather he puts me in uncomfortable situations to teach me. He guides me through these times, and loves me regardless of how I weather it. This is how a father/child relationship should be (as he models it for us)
- “Today, America — on Christmas Eve — our children are crying. They are wailing in agony and with anguish. They are screaming and begging and pleading for us to choose their innocence over our arrogance.
And today, we stand at the threshold of history. The world we thought we knew, and the one we had hoped to leave to our children, is gone forever.
Because The Newtown Massacre left twenty children dead.
And six adults.
There is no going back. And I have no doubt that future generations will look back upon our actions today and see these crucial hours as the ones that will have shaped their world and defined their destiny.”
This is the world I know – “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” This is a fallen world, these are truly trying times. Sin happens.
- “Our decisions in the midst of this tragic midnight will bless, or curse, our grandchildren. They will see our faith and our courage or our fear and our cowardice. They will see us as the ones who demanded a sincere, rational set of well-regulated laws or an insane, obscene reaction that hopelessly passed our horrific sins onto our children and grandchildren.”
So, because I disagree with you, I am a coward and faithless?
- “We will be the ones who accepted responsibility for the pathetic, violent gun culture we created that killed those twenty precious kids or we will be the ones who denied our sins and always blamed somebody else for the horrors we have created.”
This is ludicrous. I have no direct or indirect responsibility for these events. I am HORRIFIED by them, I weep for the loss of life, but what you are proposing is take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens, so that ONLY the criminals would then have them. I don’t see how this logic works. Cite me one country where violent crime has gone down after guns were made illegal.
- “The Newtown Massacre proved it: America must, like my father, chose our children over our right to bear arms. We must put their innocence before our arrogance. No decent, loving parent would dare to disagree.”
Honestly I am tired of refuting this post. You are more than entitled to your opinion, I welcome that and encourage that. But you personally insult me when you assume to understand something you are not: a parent.
-Signed
A decent and loving parent.
Damn, man. I’m disappointed, Burt. I really am…
Thanks Nor, for sharing your heart with us about this. God bless you as you care.
Thank you, Debbie, for your encouragement.
The debate is NOT over. I am a decent, loving parent and I dare to disagree. We are all devastated by the deaths of these precious children, but your conclusion is utterly wrong-headed. Your solution–to ban guns– would empower motivated evil people, while taking away the ability for good, sane people to defend themselves and their families.
Your post oversimplifies a problem that has little to do with guns and everything to do with mental illness and the propensity of evil to kill and destroy. Please tell me what kind of gun Timothy McVeigh used to kill 240 people in Oklahoma City? What kind of gun was used on 9-11 to kill 3,000 people? Should we outlaw fertilizer? Box cutters? Airplanes? Are you aware of how strict the gun laws are in Mexico, where more than 50,000 people have been murdered in the last six years?
According to your prescription, a decent loving parent will be unable to defend their children against an armed intruder. It is my responsibility to defend my family. If I abstain from this, I have utterly failed my family. No one else will do this for me. My children and I earned our black belts in tae kwon do, so that we can defend ourselves and our family. We took gun safety classes, so that we can defend ourselves and our family. I own guns, which are safely locked away for use in case of the need to defend my family.
You, and everyone else who wants to do away with the 2nd amendment, need to do your research about what would actually prevent more tragedies like this. I suggest you start by reading economist John Lott’s “More Guns, Less Crime.” Caring is not enough. We have to employ accurate information–truth–to protect our children. Caring is easy. But in the face of evil, it will not do a damn thing to protect our children.
Mn.