May they someday, somehow find some peace

I still remember where I was the moment I found out about the shootings at a highschool in Columbine. I was in my first year of University, and I was sitting in the cafeteria when someone asked with disbelief "Did you guys here what happened today?" We were shocked - how does a highschool student get a hold of a gun, bring it to school and walk around the school shooting people? How on any sane planet does this happen? All I could think about was my younger brother, then a grade ten student. I thought about how it would feel to find out that this had happened at his school. The pain I can muster up just imagining this scenario as part of my reality nearly suffocates me. I literally have trouble breathing when I think about this happening to my family.

Flash forward 12? 13? years, and enough of these types of tragedies that I've lost count. I don't have kids, but my husband is a middle school teacher... I think about this happening at his school and that choking feeling starts to sneak back up on me. I can't even begin to fathom what it might feel like to actually live through something this horrendous.

What rational could possibly justify one person's right to bear arms over a child's right to feel safe attending school... I know, I know, the constitution says so, but something tells me that if the men who penned the American constitution knew where their words would someday lead their country they would be ashamed. Not of themselves, but of their future countrymen's inability to adapt to different times and circumstances, and to understand that they never intended for you or I to walk into a Target outlet and buy a handgun. They intended for the population to have the right and ability to defend itself against the government should the need arise. Our current situation is a perversion of their vision. It's time to smarten up and get with the times, and quit hiding behind a document that is over 200 years old.

Tonight my prayers go out to the victims, their families, the children and teachers who witnessed this unimaginable tragedy. May they someday, somehow find some peace.