I wasn’t prepared for her to ask the question.  And I felt a roller coaster of emotion when I heard the words come from her mouth.  She said them even before she put her backpack down after walking in the door, returning home from school.

“Hi Mom.  If a man with a gun comes to our school, how do I find you?”

And there it was.

How do I find you?

She noticed my pause after she asked, so she kept going.

“The kids at school were talking about it.  And I just want to know.  Our house isn’t that close to school and I don’t know how I’ll get to you.  I’m worried.”

The last sentence did it.

She was worried.

I told her we did have a plan and that she should run to our dear family friend’s house behind the school.  And that she and her sister should find each other.  Let’s make a meeting place at the school for you to find each other.

We have to have a plan.

It hasn’t happened here, but it is here.

My daughter, who should have no worries at this stage of her life, is worried.  It is in our lives now.

Because we have put the right to bear arms above our right to feel safe.

We have let our government representatives offer their prayers.  And nothing else.

The second amendment places the right to keep and bear arms.

I decided to look it up, so I could see the exact wording.  And that is exactly what it says.

So I kept reading to the Third Amendment.  Do you know what it is?  (Because I didn’t until just now.)  Here it is:

The third amendment “places restrictions on the quartering of soldiers in private homes without the owner’s consent, prohibiting it during peacetime.”  Written in 1789, ratified in 1791.

We don’t hear much about that one, do we?

Because it’s completely irrelevant.

Because this document is over 200 years old.  Quartering of soldiers in private homes doesn’t happen much in 2015.

Our United States Constitution is a living document.  Because we are Americans and we live it everyday.  It is not in a vacuum.  We have to keep it relevant to the lives we live now.

So let’s keep the right to bear arms.  Have it.  Have a gun in your home, for hunting or whatever you like.

How about the right to bear arms, but maybe not a firearm where you can hold the trigger down while bullets ooze out?  You actually have to pull the trigger for a bullet to come out?  Seems reasonable.

Or maybe we revise this:

In Indiana, no license or permit is required to purchase any gun; the state doesn’t require the registration of guns; and there are no limitations on assault weapons. The state had a seven-day waiting period before a gun purchase, but that was dissolved in 1998. (via Indiana Law Blog)

Dissolved.

The first line of our Constitution is an important one as well.  Here it is:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility…

Insure domestic Tranquility.

My Constitutional right has been infringed upon.

My daughters’ Constitutional right has been infringed upon.

We no longer have domestic tranquility.

I have a child who is worried about a man coming to her school with a gun and how she will find me.

I know many solutions have been given.

Being responsible with guns starts in the home.

Turning our country to God is what we need.

Teaching our children how to properly use a gun.

All of those may help..

But those cannot be legislated.

And they don’t help the young man who is mentally ill and goes to MC Sports to buy an AR-15 Semi-Automatic Sporting Rifle with no waiting period, no license, no background check.

I want my liberty, too.

My pursuit of happiness.

My daughters’ domestic tranquility.

Your child’s domestic tranquility.

Our right to live.

That is more important than any gun.

 

An added note-

If you feel as strongly as I do, here is the list of our United States Senators and Representatives and their addresses.  Let your voice be heard.

http://www.senate.gov/senators/contact/

http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/#listrep