Trying to work in PSL
OK, I’m getting some work done today. But I can’t help keeping TV news on in the corner of the office. And there’s a kind of shroud over everything. Everything moves a little slow.
Thoughts come of loved ones who might have been at Pulse nightclub Saturday night, celebrating into last call around 2 a.m. Sunday morning. Someone filled with love—for themselves, for others, for the world. Someone whose seat was still warm where they sat. Whose chair may have swiveled slightly when the first shots rang out. When they fell.
Was it the song? The crazy soundtrack?
The President was properly somber. I didn’t feel he was angry enough. I’m hoping he has something up his sleeve.
And now, while I try to work, on the TV in the corner is a retired New York City cop, who now owns St. Lucie Shooting Center. All the t’s were crossed, he says; all the i’s were dotted. The cop looks like a nice fellow. He looks like he’s moving a little slow today. He looks like there’s a shroud over everything.
Right up the street from me, a retired NYC cop matter-of-factly explains the incomprehensible.
It’s a warm, sunny day in Port St. Lucie. My heart goes everywhere, to everyone, but for some reason I’m feeling it right now for this retired cop, who probably helped a slew of people in the Big Apple, moved south in retirement, and ended up selling weapons that Omar Mateen bought, entirely legally, and the warm blood flowed in Florida. Maybe that’s what Obama has up his sleeve. Something that will uncross the t’s and undot the i’s and prevent the next mass shooting with an assault weapon that no one ever needed who was not assaulting something, something that was assaulting back.
Omar Mateen, entirely legal, entirely dead.
The St. Lucie Shooting Center is right up the street, and the retired cop may be a few degrees away from being my bunkmate at Fort Dix and a few more degrees away from being the soldier Kevin Bacon accompanied home in Taking Chance. A few degrees away from being as warm as blood, dripping off a barstool at Pulse after a loving night out with friends and family and lovers.
Moving a little slow, trying to get back to work, glad I don’t own a gun shop. Now there’s a crazy business. I wonder how many people would trade the Second Amendment to have their loved one back. I’m pretty sure I would.
Posted on June 13, 2016, in Autobiographical, Constitution, Cultural observations, Gun rights, Living, mental health, Second Amendment, Writing and tagged activism, AR-15, assault weapons, Florida, Florida living, gun control, LGBT rights, mass shooting, Omar Mateen, Orlando, Orlando shooting, Port St. Lucie. Bookmark the permalink. 9 Comments.
OutLooking 
A “lifetime concealed carry” permit? Thought you were kidding until I found this info:
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/05/jindal_concealed_carry_guns_la.html
“Louisianians can now apply for lifetime concealed-carry handgun permits, after a piece of legislation sponsored by a Baton Rouge-area state legislator was signed by Gov. Bobby Jindal on Thursday evening. The bill is the first gun regulation bill to be signed by the governor during the 2013 legislative session.
“The bill is the first piece of legislation for Rep. Barry Ivey, R-Central, one of the newest lawmakers in the state Capitol, who ran on a platform of ‘Pro-life. Pro-gun. Pro-family.’ The lifetime gun permit will cost $500 and will require the carrier to complete a training course every five years.”
Not a joke. Not a rumor. Fact.
LikeLike
Ha, ha.
LikeLike
One the more interesting responses to the Orlando shooting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36QWM_JL-lA
LikeLike
If all the guns went away he’d of taken a match to the place and locked the doors from the outside. Radical terrorists are the problem, not guns.
LikeLike
Yeah, everyone says that. And yet…
LikeLike
Look at the crime rate in cities with strict gun laws, very high crime rate compared to states that people can protect themselves.
LikeLike
According to an Atlantic article, “The states that impose the most restrictions on gun users also have the lowest rates of gun-related deaths, while states with fewer regulations typically have a much higher death rate from guns.”
FactCheck.org says that “weaker gun laws were common among the states with higher gun death rates…In fact, none of the states with the most gun violence require permits to purchase rifles, shotguns, or handguns. Gun owners are also not required to register their weapons in any of these states. Meanwhile, many of the states with the least gun violence require a permit or other form of identification to buy a gun.”
But don’t let the facts stand in your way. I believe that statistics can be made to demonstrate almost any point you want to make.
LikeLike
But that rate is higher because people defend themselves with their guns haha.
LikeLike
I’ve never heard a news story of a person shooting up a gun show haha. I own a gun and have my lifetime concealed carry, I’d rather be armed than a sheep. I’d shoot someone in a second to save my life.
LikeLike