I watched a training video explaining what to do during an active shooter event. This is more of a “how to stay alive” video rather than any suggestion that Joe Citizen could or should take any active role against such a shooter.

I remember cringing the last time I saw this video. It depicts a horrible scene: an actor is depicting killing several people with a shotgun. The second viewing didn’t make it any easier.

As horrific as the video was, it pales in comparison to the video parents were shown by our kids’ principal during a PTA meeting last year. This video was one used by school administrators to depict how school staff would react during a shooting incident. Shots fired. Cowering teachers. Crying kids. Absolute nightmare stuff.

My jaw dropped. Is everyone actually fine with this? And … I’m expected to be fine with it, too?

While many people might just nod their heads and accept the responsibility for protecting themselves during events like these, the sheer fucking madness of it all wouldn’t let me.

No. I reject that people should accept being shotgun fodder.

I reject that the fear of being shot needs be instilled in young kids.

I reject the notion that more guns will somehow save us.

I reject that a bullet flying through the air has more rights than I do!

How can America just give up and accepts this kind of violence? How is the right answer “well, we’re all just going to have to live in fear” or “obviously we need more guns?” How did we arrive at the madness?

Is this the best we can do? Do we simply surrender to the fear? Can we as Americans admit that America has a problem and that whatever it is that we’re currently doing isn’t working?

Lawmakers in Utah introduced a bill to train middle school students in gun safety and what to do in case of an active shooter incident. Said bill sponsor, Woods Cross Republican Sen. Todd Weiler:

“I think it’s always helpful for children and adults to think through what you would do in a situation before you encounter it. Unfortunately, it is probably a necessary reality in the society we live in these days.”

Oh well, we certainly can’t do anything about our gun problem so we’ll just have to train everyone in how not to be a target.

This is bullshit. If we accept that mass shootings are now part of life then America has utterly failed as a society. We should just wave the white flag as we cower under the bed. It is failure. It is madness. America is toast, and we did ourselves in.

We did it to ourselves.

I’ve long been supportive of a citizen’s right to own guns but it’s not a blank check. It’s time to tighten the regulation of these killing machines. It’s past time that we talk about the “well-regulated” part of a well-regulated militia.

This is no way to live, folks. The madness has to stop.