Me And A Gun

[Posh]

I was torn between three different titles, one using Aerosmith's Janie's Got A Gun and the third using Pearl Jam's Jeremy. I settled on Tori Amos' Me and a Gun which is her song about her brutal rape at gun point in the 1980s after a performance she gave at a bar, just before she became very famous. The harrowing experience was immortalized and dealt with by the cathartic writing of this song, a song that she performs infrequently, for many obvious and not so obvious reasons. However, when she does, it's often acapella, sitting on a stool with no lights on in the venue except for a single spotlight directly above her head. This song allowed her to take back what she lost that day at the end of that gun. I'm proud to say that I am a member and supporter of RAINN in part because of this song.


Tori now mostly performs this song with a full band as her American Doll alter ego, Pip, with disturbing props.

But that's not completely what this post is about. The Obama post has a lot of people singing the praises of children being in contact with guns. I have no idea when being able to use, clean and handle guns became a part of a fulfilling childhood. I'm very glad I wasn't privy to that aspect of being an "well-adjusted" child. You know what we have today? Child soldiers from kids being indoctrinated very early into the whole war, violence and gun culture. I know what you're going to say:



I'm not going to inundate this post with a lot of written statistics because I just don't have the time and it would upset me too much, with this post already taking to me to a place I don't want to go. The numbers and arguments, both in favor of kids having access to guns and not, are out there if you want to use them in support of my stance or to take it down, if you care to look for them. I'm going to go with my heart on this one and say that childhood should be filled with as little access to strife and fear as possible. The effects of a childhood lived in the opposite way is apparent everyday around the world. In the Obama post, it was mentioned that children not being treated little adults is a relatively new construct, with which I will partially agree. Thanks to advancements in society, children can be allowed to be children without being sold off into marriage or placed on a battlefield, at least most parts of the country. But it doesn't matter what it used to be like 100 or 1,000 year ago; now, children are expected to have formative years filled with security, love, fun, learning and happiness.

Another member stated in the Obama thread that fear of guns is for some reason "creepy." Why wouldn't you be afraid since guns were created for one specific reason: the destruction of not just life, but human life. Anyway, I'm considered so "wordy" around here by so few who matter in my life, I'm going to let these pictures (and the AP) do the talking. I have to thank a publishing pal for compilation of these pictures for this post! I would also like to state that this is NOT about "conservative" or "liberal." For me, this about life and what I think G-d would want. That's my belief and I stand by it.

My posts are open to all viewpoints (I don't like most forms of censorship) and anybody feeling one way or another is welcome to comment or not as long as you keep it civil, out respect for me, the founders of RG and fellow members. This doesn't mean you should exorcise passion from your post; this subject is inherently draws out passion responses. So I'll start.

Anybody who thinks kids with guns is cool is a:



A four year old Iraq child cries as older boys stage a mock execution in Baghdad, Iraq, Monday, July 2, 2007. Children's games are under a heavy influence of ongoing violence in the country, one of the more popular ones being a clash between militias and police.


Samboo, a 12-year-old soldier in the Karen rebel army fighting against Myanmar's military, poses with his rifle in a jungle camp on the border with Thailand in this January 31, 2000 file photo. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) on October 30 called for the demobilisation of 70,000 child soldiers, some as young as seven, fighting in armies across East Asia.


















Trench coat Mafia anyone? I'm sure he's very popular amongst his peers.


Unfortunately, kids around the world like to play with guns. But in the Palestinian territories the games take on a sinister undertone when almost every boy seems to carry a fake weapon and children reenact in detail the shootings and arrests they witness on the streets. Picture taken October 13, 2007.


In a mixed but hopeful report released this week by the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, in the past four years the use of children as soldiers has dropped from 27 percent in 2004 to 17 percent this year. It's not completely positive, however, as this trend could be a correlation resulting from ending conflicts altogether as opposed to the discontinuation of using children as soldiers.

The children gleefully threw their guns into a bonfire, most of them AK-47 and M-16 rifles and cheered as they were destroyed. Some of the children even wore placards reading, “We hate toy guns. We love football." The guns in India were toys — though some children shoulder real weapons in times of war. To see the light at the end of this tunnel, read more.


Children hold their toy guns prior to burning them at Keinou, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Imphal, India, Wednesday, May 21, 2008. Hundreds of village children in India's insurgency-wracked northeast burned their toy guns in a symbolic protest against the violence in Manipur state, where at least 17 rebel groups have been fighting for independent homelands or autonomy. More than 5,000 people have been killed in the fighting over the past 10 years.




Uruguayan school children observe confiscated guns before being destroyed in front of Congress in Montevideo, during the launch of a program to decrease the number of guns circulating in the civilian population, May 23, 2008. According to government statistics there is one gun in circulation for every three Uruguayan citizens.


A member of the Baath militia giving his kids guns.











Samaritan children play with toy guns, 30 April 2007, before the sacrifice of the Passover ceremony at Mount Gerizim near the northern West Bank city of Nablus. The Samaritan religion is based on four principles of faith, One God-The God of Israel; One Prophet-Moses Ben Amram; The Belief in The TORAH-the first five books of the bible and One Holy Place-Mount Gerizim. The Samaritan community numbers about 720 people, half at Mount Gerizin in the West Bank and the others in Holon near Tel Aviv in Israel.




Palestinian children play with toy guns during the second day of Eid al-Fitr at al-Amaari refugee camp in the West Bank city of Ramallah October 14, 2007. The three-day holiday marks the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan.