The Antiquated 2nd Amendment & The Worst Plan B of All-time

It's been a week now since the unspeakable and unfathomable Sandy Hook Elementary School travesty; the world still remains in shock. When I first started to read the timeline on Twitter I initially tweeted that the conversation on gun control should be saved for a more appropriate time, whether that was in the coming days, weeks or months. However, shortly thereafter, after reading the tweets from Piers Morgan and Michael Moore, I came to agreement that NOW is the time to have an honest conversation about gun control in the United States. The deaths of these 20 innocent young angels cannot happen without change. I spent the next couple hours retweeting insightful articles and statistics about the gun control issue in the United States. I insisted that, because I don't have extensive knowledge on the subject and I'm Canadian, I would keep my thoughts to a platform of 140 characters or less. That was before I came across two pathetic stories I could not commit thoughts to, in 140 characters or less.

The first story I felt compelled to write about was from President Obama's speech at the Newtown memorial. Within the hour of the speech, Deadspin quickly compiled a running timeline of insensitive and racist tweets from individuals upset that the speech was interrupting the San Francisco 49ers v. New England Patriots game on Sunday Night Football. In the days following, I was appalled by the +NFL's cowardice to support NBC's decision to pre-empt the game to air President Obama's speech. A true #PRFail in my books.

The second story infuriated me much more than the first. An American armour provider, Amendment II is profiting off this horrific massacre. Yes, sales of Amendment II's armoured backpacks have tripled in the last week. That's correct, hundreds to thousands of American parents are rushing to strap armoured Disney Princesses, Avengers or Swiss Gear backpacks to their children and send them to school "protected" in case another deranged young male happens to stumble upon his mother's semi-automatic rifle in the "hidden cabinet". REALLY? This is the worst Plan B of all-time!

I quickly want to interrupt this train of thought to state that A) I'm aware and proud that since this massacre, thousands of Americans have admitted to the gun control issue and have relinquished their guns and B) I'm the last guy that buys into sweeping global generalizations about the American people. I'm the first guy to defend Americans. I love the United States and many of its people.

That said, for all the gun brandishing, armoured backpack purchasing, 2nd amendment-saluting Americans, I have to say that you are unquestionably delusional. To believe a reasonable solution to preventing another shooting of this magnitude is to strap handguns and rifles to your children's teachers or worse, don your children in armoured backpacks is beyond comprehension.

Armour has never been so stylish for your children!

Are we devolving as a species? I'm unequivocally sickened by this! The solution to this problem sits right in front of our faces; don't allow these guns to be so damn accessible! The thought of purchasing a semi-automatic rifle at the local Walmart truly boggles my mind. I truly could never bring myself to even walk over to that section of the store when I visited an American Walmart. This foreign concept was way too creepy to consider. To be blatantly honest, if I wanted to own a rifle of that kind, I have NO IDEA how or where I could find one. For the average American, it's easier for you to go purchase an AK47 than it is for me to unlock that gun in the latest Call of Duty video game.

If you're THAT pro-gun loyalist that is completely dismissing what I'm saying then I want you to do the following. I want you to strap the Disney Princesses armoured backpack to your little daughter. Then have this conversation with her...

Daughter: "Why do I need to wear this?"
Parent: "It's for your protection in case a bad person tries to shoot you"
Daughter: "Why do we let these bad people have guns?"
Parent: "Our 2nd amendment says we are allowed to bear arms"
Daughter: "I'm scared"

I'm almost certain that child will come to the realization of the real issue quicker than many of these gun-waving individuals. That precious 2nd amendment these people cling to is completely antiquated. It was drafted in 1791! For Pete's sake, SLAVERY had yet to be abolished. There were no semi-automatic rifles in 1791 either. Since that time we've abolished slavery, allowed women to vote, drove, flown, listened to the radio, watched TV, surfed the Internet, Facebook'd, Skype'd, etc. We've evolved in every possible way except for the 2nd amendment.

For the sake of the American people, I hope we see a revolution on the 2nd amendment.