Feeling My Heart Break

 Hello dear readers,

No pretty pictures today. My heart is not in it. Today, I am just sharing my heartbreak over the loss of little children and teachers in Uvalde, TX at the hands of a gunman. 

And, along with others who have said it before me, I am asking, "What are we doing?" 

These were little children, precious little lives, the same ages as kids I taught for over 30+ years. And they were gunned down. Their innocent lives cut short. It makes me sick to think about it. 

I can picture the classroom because, you see, I taught in one for many years. I can picture the movement of the kids around the classroom, all excited because they had an awards ceremony earlier in the day. The teachers were trying, I am sure, to find things to keep the kids occupied, learning and busy after such an exciting day. I can hear the talking, the laughter, the kidding around that teachers do with their students. Excitement was running high because there were only a few days left before summer break. And then, appearing at the door....a crazed individual who has already killed his own grandmother. 

I can picture the fear on those kids' faces. The fear on the teachers' faces. I've been through the lockdown drills many times and, as teachers, we all knew what we were supposed to do. I remember, as an itinerant teacher who moved from school to school, being in a school when there was a drill that I didn't know ahead of time was going to happen. I sat huddled in the dark in the corner of that classroom with the student I had been testing thinking this was a real lockdown and wondering how I would protect that child if a gunman came through the door. 

And you know that thought was on those teachers' minds, at Robb Elementary, in the split seconds they had to react when that gunman came through the door. 

But tell me...how does one react....how does one protect a classroom full of children....against AR 15 semi-automatic rifles that belong on a battlefield and not in the hands of an 18 year old??!!

I'm sick of it. 

I don't care if I'm trampling on your political beliefs right now. 

This has got to stop.

We need gun control laws in this country and we need them now. Why should any average American need these types of weapons?

How many innocent lives need to be snuffed out in order for our leaders to do what they ALL know is the right thing to do? 

Oh yes, here it comes.  The age old argument. It's our Constitutional Right to bear arms. 

Yes it is. 

But, is it our Constitutional Right to bear assault rifles that are used by soldiers on the battlefields? Do we need those kind of weapons to go hunting? Do we need those kind of weapons to protect ourselves? These are the big arguments that are always given when no legislation is passed when these mass shootings happen. Did our founding fathers want all Americans to have AK-15's???

I'm sick of it. Of hearing these same arguments over and over. People who say, "It's not guns who kill people, it's people who kill people." 

Tell that to those little children cowering in that classroom watching their classmates get gunned down before it was their turn. Tell that to those teachers reaching out to grab kids and shield as many as possible while facing the gunman head on. 

Tell that to those families screaming in agony in the school parking lot when they learned it was their child who wasn't coming home. 

I'm sick of it.  Of turning on the TV to see that yet another shooting has taken place.....at churches, synagogues, grocery stores, schools. 

I'm sick of it and I'll say it again...

We need gun legislation in this country and we need it now. 

But you can rest assured that the NRA and many politicians (yes, mostly Republican ones) are already working to make certain it won't happen. 

Please be in prayer for the families who are suffering right now. 

Until Saturday Scriptures, 

Debbie