If we give Guns… Kids will shoot
Yet another shoot out in the United States of America. Yet another day of outburst on Facebook. Yet another helpless statement from the President of the most powerful country. Yet another occasion when parents would like to hold their children tight. And frankly speaking it is nothing but yet another act of fake sympathy and concern from most human beings. Come tomorrow morning our lives will continue and soon we will forget about what happened till it happens again.
We can blame many people for this. As always we can start with the the gun lobby in the United States who continue to behave as if we live in 17th century. They are definitely responsible for keeping the guns very accessible. We can blame the politicians who will not build consensus to ban guns. We can blame religion, police, mental disorders, stress, broken families, messed up social fabric and so on.
If we think beyond the obvious then the blame is also at the doorsteps of toy makers and toy distributors who willingly sell toy guns. And of course cartoon makers, theme parks, entertainment studios, gaming centers, computer game makers, and even schools. Last year I was shocked to learn from my kindergarten going son that they always play the shooting game in school.
Most importantly we the parents need to accept the responsibility as many of us take pride when our kids are shooting with their toy guns. In our desperation to turn our kids into superheroes we are willingly exposing them to the likes of Captain America, Ironman, Batman, Superman, Spiderman and the incredible Hulk. Collectively these superheroes use all sorts of weapons to beat the hell out the baddies. So consider this: when a friend in school refuses to share a toy he becomes a baddie and then he is the prime object that our superhero child is wanting to take down.
World will be a much better place if we eradicate weapons and violence from the lives of children and teach them basic values of kindness, happiness, health, peace and respect for others. So if you think what happened in the United States should not happen again then stand firm and remove guns and weapons from your homes and schools. And you will have to walk alone on this path till others join you. As a family we have been walking on this path for a while and we are trying very hard to keep guns away from our child.
When I was a kid I learnt a Sanskrit prayer from my grandparents and I feel we need to pass it onto the new age kids.
It simply means:
May everyone be happy, May everyone be healthy, May everyone be blessed, May everyone be free from sorrow, May we have peace, peace, peace.
