A world in need of more Big Shields, and less weapons :/

<Misc>

I am writing this article less than a week after the massacre in Las Vegas, where 58 individuals lost their lives and 489 others were injured.  It was a terrible tragedy which has affected many families not only now but for many years to come, and has brought much sadness to the world.  Unfortunately it is far from the first time something like this has happened, it is not even so long ago that the Sandy Hook massacre occurred, and I recall the emotions that I and many others felt at that time – Sadness, anger, questioning why and how something like this could occur.  I was fired up at the time hoping that stricter gun laws would pass, and I recall the senate vote almost immediately afterwards in which the proposed changes were flatly denied (which is insane), apparently not much has changed since then.  I am not sure what it will take to change society’s appetite for weapons, but I would like to share my thoughts, and hopefully encourage some positive change:

• Ownership of guns should be to be restricted to law enforcement and military personnel (including ex-military).  These individuals put their lives on the line to protect the rest of us civilians, have the experience required, and are properly trained (physically and mentally – including Emotional IQ) to do so.
• An ‘eye for an eye’ is a never-ending sequel of violence.  You can not prevent violence with violence.  It will loop on forever.
• If you ever find yourself in a dangerous situation, you should leave that situation, and call the police.  The chances of you pulling out a weapon and that situation ending well for anyone involved (including yourself and whomever your trying to protect) is extremely unlikely.
• There are roughly 12,000 gun deaths annually in the US, 1,500 of which are unintentional, and 556 of which are children.  (I hate even typing these statistics).

Life is too precious to waste on senseless and completely unnecessary violence.  There is absolutely no need for it.  There are so many wonderful things in the world to see and experience, anything and everything from art, to music, to traveling, sports, education, science, skateboarding, whatever it is you take an interest in, personal growth and learning is always available in the US.  The opportunities are limitless.  Don’t take it for granted.

On the subject of rights and freedom, I really dislike when I hear loud people on the news complaining about their rights to bear arms.  If you are not military or law enforcement, get over it.  Stop whining.  How about your right to be a responsible adult and be part of building a peaceful society which is free from gun violence?  Think about it, use your intelligence and be part of the solution.  Our ability to think creatively and innovate can make all the difference.

I also wanted to touch upon self-defense.  Regardless of whether you are male or female, you should at least be somewhat physically fit and at least mildly proficient in hand to hand combat.  If you really feel so strongly about owning a weapon, maybe you should focus more on making your own body a weapon.  Do that and leave the rest to law enforcement.

We need more Big Shields in a society filled with such confusion and trouble, we don’t need more weapons.  Be a shield.  Be strong.

<Gaming>

So the image here is of Big Shield Gardna, a warrior creature card from Yu-Gi-Oh.  Gardna has extremely high Defense, and weak Offense to balance his attributes out, and is all about solid defense.  He is extremely reliable and can protect the duelist from most any attack.  In fact he’s constantly putting himself in harms way to protect others… a pretty cool card character which I thought was appropriate for this article.

With regards to Yu-Gi-Oh itself, some of you might not know, but I am a huge fan!  I never really got into playing the card game itself in person (although I have a bunch of cards floating around somewhere), but have played the various electronic versions for years, and am a big fan of the anime and manga.  The manga is actually quite excellent (in terms of artwork, storyline, and characters)  and is focused on the themes of friendship and fighting.  I’ll plan on circling back to that in a future article…. until then, peace out.

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