Do you think maybe there are too many guns in this country? Do you think maybe the political climate makes mentally unbalanced people think it is ok, it’s normal, it’s the way we do things in America, to shoot those you disagree with?

For God’s sake. The shooting of a senator, and at others, in DC was interrupted by a shooting of 3 people in San Francisco at UPS. And how many other shootings today that didn’t make the nightly news?

I have wondered for so long what was going to be the moment, the incident, when lawmakers finally said, enough, and enacted some common sense gun laws. Like, background checks. Like keeping guns out of the hands of mentally ill people. I thank God every day that my ex didn’t take matters into his own hands when he became delusional, and threaten or hurt someone else with the guns he owns. Thank God he went to the police. Personally, because I lived an hour away from the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown CT, I hoped the nation would do what the state did after that shooting of 20 small children and 6 educators. The state of CT passed the toughest gun laws in the nation. The Congress was too bought off by the NRA to do anything, after any of the mass shootings.

I mean, really. What does it take?

How many times do we have to live through this horror, this terror, before we learn the lessons? Apparently, more. I’m sure nothing will happen after this latest carnage either.

What can we do? We can tone down our hateful rhetoric. We can be clear that violence is never the way, and that great change has always come through non-violent means. We can extend love, and not project fear. We can find a purpose in our lives that lifts the people around us, not one that sends them running for cover.

This sickens me. Just sickens me. This country is so f’d up. Stop the hate people. Just stop it.