“Americans vs Our “Rights”” – 7/4/22

   “U.S. Mass Shootings Hover Near Record-Breaking Levels” reads the newest headline of the article posted on Forbes.com, written by creator Joe Walsh. The article depicts the amount of people who have died due to gun violence (approximately 10,072), the total number of mass shootings from the beginning of the year to July 3rd 2022 (306), and how this total is rapidly approaching the highest number of mass shootings ever calculated in one year (692) since tracking began back in ‘14. 

  This comes just hours after America’s current total rises from 306 to 307- TODAY, as reports flood in from Highland Park in Illinois. Around 10 am, the morning of July 4th, 2022- it’s been reported that a human opened fire during the 4th of July parade and festivities. Six have been murdered, while twenty-four remain in critical condition. 

   As these mind blowingly horrific numbers continue to soar, it pushes forward the questions of Americans, our rights, and if in fact we have any. 2022 has been a bombshell of confusion, chaos & fear as fights about our diminishing  freedoms materialise left right & center. 

    On March 28th, Florida passed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. This bill prohibits any school from discussing, teaching or educating children about being anything other than a “straight couple” up until the child(ren) reaches 3rd grade. 

“Classroom instruction by school personnel or third parties on sexual orientation or gender identity may not occur in kindergarten through grade 3 or in a manner that is not age-appropriate or developmentally appropriate for students in accordance with state standards.”-DSGB

   The bill personally, disgusts me. With the arguments of “it allows when parents are allowed to introduce this topic to their children ”, making it sound like being a member of the LGTQ+ community as a disease or demon who has possessed these otherwise “perfect souls.” It depicts being apart of the LGBTQ+ community as disgusting, vile, sex obsessed & unnatural. 

Which is simply not true. Sure, there are probably members of the community who do simply revolve around sex – but the same is also true for people who are straight as well. No one wants someone who is obsessed with sexualising everything around their children: but being gay doesn’t make them over sexual, being over sexual makes them over sexual.

  On June 24th, the Supreme Court overruled the initial ruling of Roe V Wade in which the US gave its citizens the right to choose an abortion, if wanted or needed; a choice that now  no longer exists. 

 According to the information provided from Planned Parenthood, a CHILD can get pregnant at the age as young as 12. The age of consent is 16-18. A CHILD can get pregnant 4-6 before they are legally allowed to consent to having any form of physical contact with an older human being. So what has occurred when a young child gets pregnant 4-6 under the legal age? RAPE. The child has been raped. If a young child is not allowed the rights to an abortion they will be a 12 year old parent. & depending on the state this occurs, their rapist not only is the other legal parent but has parental rights, with it taking multiple steps to sever these ties. And yet, some people are still more worried about explains a a gay couple to a child rather than how a fully grown creepy adult sexualised a child.

With all of this occurring around the U.S. gun rights are still on the rise. On June 24th (the SAME day RvW was overturned), the Supreme Court also annulled a law in New York which  restricts the rights to carry guns, now making it much easier for its citizens to carry arms. 

“The high court ruled that New York’s requirement that applicants show good cause to carry concealed firearms was too prohibitive.” –Politico.com 

  Prohibitive, by definition means forbidding or restricting something. Having to produce a good reason to carry a gun was “too restricting”, or “too forbidding”.

“The Concealed Carry Improvement Act, adopted 43-20 by the Senate Friday afternoon and 91-51 by the Assembly later in the night, requires applicants display “good moral character,” pass a firearm safety course and provide data from their social media accounts as part of strengthened background checks.” Politico.com

• good moral character 

• pass a safety course 

• provide data from social media accounts 

  Presenting data from one’s social media accounts is now vital to carrying a gun but it is now illegal to get an abortion in states & to talk to your children about homosexuality. Instagram, Facebook + a gun = YES, protecting women, LGBTQ+ community = NO.

*332,403,650 – the number of people in the U.S. CENSUS

*23,600,659  – the number of people in the U.S who identify as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. NBC

*167,930,323- the number of people who identify as female in the U.S ST

*23,600,659 + 167,930,323 = ≈191,530,982 people (I say ≈ with the idea that some people may fall into both categories & the numbers would change). 

*191,530,982 people of our 332,403,650 total population.

 *Guns have more rights than ≈OVER HALF of our total population.