Guns

Honestly, I'm tired of the gun debate. Both sides get irate and nothing gets done. We all have to admit there's a problem, right? Whether the deaths are mass shootings, homicides, suicides, accidental discharges surely we all can agree that reducing these incidents would be a good thing? 

People throw their hands up in the air. They say this is the world we live in today. These things "just happen". 

So, let's talk about Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). It happens. It's tragic. It's beyond awful and no one wants it to happen to anyone. We don't know exactly what causes it, although we have some ideas and we want to do what we can to mitigate those factors. 

One solution would be for everyone to just stop having babies. No babies=No SIDS. But a lot of us happen to think babies are pretty great. Some of us have babies and really have no business having a baby, but most of us love and care for our babies as we should.

So in 1994 after studying other countries and doing research the Back to Sleep campaign was released. It didn't stop SIDS completely, but it did reduce deaths by 50%. FIFTY PERCENT! That's huge! 

Now imagine we all worked together, looked at the factors. Did some research and found something that would reduce gun deaths by 50%. How incredible would that be? 

Maybe it's higher taxes so we can provide mental health care to those who need it. Maybe it's limiting ammunition. Maybe it's bringing criminal charges against parents who don't keep their guns properly stored. Maybe it's something that people smarter than me in the areas of gun safety figure out. 

But isn't it time to quit debating semantics and actually DO something?