I think I understand diversity and believe without it life would not be as we know it, if we existed at all. We have a diverse number of plants on this earth, and that is good. We get a good variety of fruits, vegetables, and grain from that diversity. If the only plant was a cactus, I think the human race would cease to exist. We have a wide variety of animals, another source of food for our existence. If the only animal alive was a tiger, then humans wouldn’t exist and even the tiger would eventually become extinct.

We have a wide variety of human beings in our various populations in the world. We have hunters, farmers, lawyers, preachers, teachers, etc. etc. I don’t think we can do without any of them. They are all part of the mix that allows us to exist as this life form. We even have crazies. We’ve always had those that simply didn’t fit in with convention and served only to disrupt the lives of everyone else. They too, are a part of this tapestry of life.

Throughout the centuries, crazies have been dealt with in a variety of ways. At some point they were killed or exiled from the community to fend for themselves and eventually die. We have locked them up in institutions so they wouldn’t harm themselves or others. We’ve drugged them into a compliant state of being.

But in our current world, we are allowing the crazies to arm themselves with semi-automatic or automatic weapons whose only function is to kill as many people as possible in the least amount of time. The development of these weapons is deemed necessary for modern warfare, and perhaps it is. However, outside the military, they have no place. If the crazies wanted to commit a mass killing and had to use bare hands, knives, or less automatic firearms, they wouldn’t do it. It just wouldn’t happen.

This isn’t a matter of rights. Not even our right-winged conservative congressmen would argue that someone has the right to walk into an elementary school and take away the rights of a bunch of little kids. It’s time for action. We must write and enforce laws that prevent this incredibly bizarre past time from happening over and over and over.

If someone wants to own a weapon, great, but let there be psychological testing to determine if the person has anger issues, antisocial attitudes or anti-life sentiments. Find out if they believe there are segments of our society who don’t deserve to be alive. If they can pass with flying colors, let them buy a weapon. But not an automatic weapon, not a handgun useful only for killing another human being.

Let’s start using the intelligence we were born with, and if the diverse segment of our population who believe they have the right to do away with my rights, can’t learn to live with me, then perhaps they should be locked up, shunned, or drugged into compliance. No matter what we do, the right to life of our children is at stake. Our legislators need to come to grips with that and stop letting special interest groups dictate who gets to live and who gets killed.