There are nearly 17000 (that is 17 thousand) federal and state gun laws on the books in the United States.

Do we need more gun laws?

Or, do we need the current laws enforced?

Today, in Nassau County, NY, someone began shooting.

People died.

How did he get access to that firearm?

In New York, you either need a firearms license or you have an illegal firearm.

If the shooter had a firearms license, he must have gone through an extensive background check for the license and another to legally purchase the firearm.

Some government officials must have signed off on either/both documents.

Who is the person (people) who permitted this license and/or sale of the firearm?

Why is no one investigating this?

If the shooter did everything legally, then why ban all firearms from all people?

The government system worked.

Prosecute the shooter.

The firearm was not at fault.

Only the individual shooter.

If the shooter did not obtain the firearm legally, then prosecute the shooter and everyone who participated in the sale of the firearm.

Thus, once again, the government system works.

That is, only if you want to prosecute the individual.

If you have a plan to make all citizens pay the crimes of a single individual, then you really do not care about firearm laws. You do not want individuals to own firearms.

The narrative speaks volumes to prove this hypothesis correct.

The Nassau County shooter is another example in a long line of publicized shootings for the sole purpose of denying law-abiding citizens their US Constitutional rights.

Do you remember President Obama's "Fast and Furious"?

Would you admit it if you do?

Government does not wish to follow their own laws.

Government wants you to follow their own laws.

And even when you do, the government will find an excuse to make you pay.

This is the narrative of government.

It is also fully embraced by Democrats and the Left.

Incrementally eroding individual liberties and rights.

Completely ignoring the US Constitution in the process.

One amendment at a time.

Relegated to the forgotten dust-bin of history.

Did you vote for this government?

Will you vote for this government again?

There must be a reason you abhor freedom and liberty.

Whether you understand what that reason is or not.

Much I marvelled the thankful look,

While I pondered, thinking, and shook.

My mind always strays to eyes,

The ones that can’t tell lies.

I remember I was coming.

All my soul within me crumbling.

And so you come, gently clanging.

Distinctly I was awaiting.

By the grave, I saw the eyelids.

I made my bids.

Greeting and greeting with my skull,

The sky seems dull.

But in the fact that it was dripping,

Back into my memories assessing.

By my grave, I saw the carnations.

Quoth the envy, “Mind the impatiens.”

And your eyes have all the concerning,

While I pondered, facing, and free burning.

If by chance, my world bends.

If by chance, my would ends.

You can cope,

I have hope.

"you only live once"

but now I'm living like I'm dead

"sleep when I'm dead"

but I sleep all the time now

afraid of the reality

with my eyes open

you're up in the stars

i hear your laugh in the night

looking up at you

I'll find you again

No matter how much I try to smile, I'm breaking inside

so lonely in this quiet night

I don't belong with anyone but me

like an alien on this earth

lonely in a crowd of people

someone come find me

hold out your hand

and hold me close

I'm carrying my worries

arms open, I'm exhausted of holding

onto the burdens I didn't have before

countless stars in the sky

but I have to live

"are you not happy?"

yeah, no one stayed by me

painful and bitter

because I can only see you in the stars

you're up in the stars

i hear your laugh in the night

looking up at you

I'll find you again

No matter how much I try to smile, I'm breaking inside

so lonely in this quiet night

I don't belong with anyone but me

like an alien on this earth

lonely in a crowd of people

someone come find me

hold out your hand

and hold me close

please be proud of me

i promise

i'll find you again

Neither begin with death camps and gas chambers.

Both start with one party controlling the media, the message, and the truth.

Then it moves to that same party censoring speech and silencing all opposition.

All the while, citizens are divided.

Both groups call on their supporters to fight.

Both groups diminish the whole, all as intended.

Genocides and Holocausts continue because good people

accepted their stimulus,

to turn a blind eye,

and fail to act.

Genocides and Holocausts will continue because good people

will cower in fear,

hoping that the government that once protected their rights,

won't come today,

to take their life.

Death camps and gas chambers are but a means to an end.

Provided there remains someone who wants it all to end.

Elections had consequences,

until one party decided they no longer serve a purpose.

No more Uncle Ben

No more Mrs. Butterworth

No more Land O' Lakes maiden

We were promised removal of these images would end problems.

We were promised just in time for Dominion voting machines to count 80 million Biden ballots.

So history repeats itself.

When you act like Neville Chamberlain, do not be surprised when you are lied to.

It is all about incrementalism toward authoritarianism.

Why, once again, do you fall for this ruse?

Why, once again, did you vote for this ruse?

I wish i could write a poem that

You

Would find in a diary where i write

To

My friends long forgotten that dwell

Do

Forever in my mind like a scar

You

Would not find it cozy i assure

You

Would flee from my poem just as I

Do

In the nights i reproach in my heart

Who

Brought light in my timeline as night

Drew

For a time that was never meant to rewind

No

Now i dream of days where i could write

To

My sufferings from a time when I was

Blue

And confess of a poem I hid from

Them

Which lied in the shade of a withered

Stem

Of whose petals you see how they’re

Unkempt

As my desires for a life

Outside my

Contempts

The house is crumbling down around me

Or am I imagining all the cracks in the walls

There is a woman's face behind the bare studs

She whispers to me the end is near

I tell her she aint seen nothin yet

Wait till the floor gives way

When it happens we are both ready

Holding hands we carelessly slip away

I had a friend once.

We grew up together. Same neighborhood.

We played sports together, learned to smoke together, walked to school together.

When school ended we shared an apartment. In it we shared women, weed, beer, and our philosophies on each. We shared food, too... when there was any money left over for it.

We sweated side-by-side, shirtless under a Southern sun, earning the cash it took to party at NASCAR races, rock concerts, bars, and beaches.

We spent sleepless weekends playing chess, darts or poker.

We slept in cars, slept in jails, camped in cemeteries, climbed water towers, and went weeks at a time without power, or water while we scrambled for cash.

Sometimes we fought, sometimes we ran, and sometimes we didn’t even give a shit.

We eventually grew up, got married, matured, and grew apart.

When he died it hurt, even though we had not spoken in ages.

That has been ten or twelve years ago, now. Quiet years. Old years, with easy, comfortable days. Years with time to reflect. Years neither of us ever thought we’d reach.

I don’t know how he went. Don’t want to. I hope it happened doing something he shouldn’t have been doing.

But I do know that at the end, when the realization of death came to him, that he could rest easy, remembering those days in the sun, working, playing, dreaming... living life boldly, and with abandon.

Living a life worth remembering.