Gun Control - Anti Gun Control

Guns in school - No Guns in School

We all have our opinions when it comes to guns, but what about the lives of individuals.

Each person has value.

We try to teach it to kids and promote it in society.

But it doesn't always work very well,

if you were to ask someone "does your life have value?"

Or "does your friend, mother, co-worker, or spouse have value?" hopefully, the answer would always be yes.

Each and every person belongs to someone.

The homeless person on the street had a family, the girl walking to class is someone's daughter, the man driving to work is someone's husband, even the criminals behind bars are someone's.

Even if we don't find the value in ourselves at times, and maybe others don't always make us feel valued, we are.

Someone cares about us even if we don't care about us.

Especially in moments of crisis, we don't have to know the person or see the person, to understand that someone somewhere just lost a person they cared about.

We hear about it or see it on the news, and often times the first thought is,

"I can't imagine how the families must feel."

The mothers, the fathers, sisters, and brothers who lost a part of their family.

I think the second we stop valuing someone or think a person doesn't have value, is when we step into a dangerous zone.

And we then somehow think no matter what we do to them, no matter what we say to them, it doesn't matter.

And that is so, so wrong.

Or we think, I value my friends, and I value my family, but I don't value the stranger sitting next to me on the bus, or the strangers passing by me in the hallway.

And that's also wrong.

We should not only value the lives we know because ALL lives are valuable.

I think if everyone understood that more, there would be a higher respect, and care for one another as individuals.

We don't have to agree with each other, we may hurt one another, or simply not be friends with everyone, but we can see them and value them as people.

Value in itself might not be able to bring about the change people desire in gun control, or anti-gun control.

But it's a start.

We start by seeing people as no different than ourselves. If a person is crying on a park bench, a mother is struggling with her crying baby, a kid looks lost, or someone clearly needs help, do something.

Don't just do something when it pops up on tv because then it's too late.

We've got to start treating people the way we wish to be treated, or else we'll become so desensitized, and so stuck in our own worlds, that we'll be too late.

This isn't another article on guns, although there can never be enough of those.

This is about life. Human life.

And most importantly, value.

Value the person who maybe doesn't value themselves, value the stranger, the mom, the young girl, or the teenage boy.

Because none of us have the right to determine another person's value.

We are ALL valuable.