Written by B.T. Hill   

Now that Newtown is starting to fade from the top of the headlines it does not mean that we can simply forget. Sadly, the massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary school seems to be a tipping point in this country for revised gun control measures.

So, as the funerals come and go, the attention dissipates, we must not let Newtown and the slaughter at the Sandy Hook Elementary School fade. It is our duty as responsible citizens in a supposedly civilized country to keep this issue in the forefront of the minds of our lawmakers.

Have YOU contacted your representatives in government? If not, and you don’t have the contact info handy, here it is:

http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml

We cannot let fade into obscurity the families of the 28 people; 20 families of the children, 6 of the school staff and the shooter and his mother included, have suffered grief that few of us can imagine. This was not just death, it was 27 murders and one suicide.

Additionally, we must strive to remember that Adam Lanza was mentally ill. He should have received treatment. We’ll never know why he didn’t. There are accounts that his mother struggled to bring up her son normally. Perhaps she was one of the millions of parents who just thought he was “a little odd” or “awkward,” and didn’t want to admit that her son suffered from mental illness. This is something else we’ll never know because, his mother, Nancy Lanza, was the first victim.

It is up to us as compassionate humans to do what we can to help prevent another horrific shooting. We all have a duty to come forward and support the mental health advocates for changes in the system. Again, we need to keep on our elected officials, giving them as many ideas as we can so that they can craft legislation and expand the mental health sector of our society. **Particularly if you are involved in the mental health sector, those of you are most qualified to step forward and comment on the issue.** ~Please help those who cannot articulate for themselves.~

President Obama has appointed Vice President Joe Biden to collect and disseminate information regarding gun laws and mental health treatment reforms, as well as a reduction of violence in the media.

Contact Joe Biden http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact-vp

No matter what your stance on gun laws may be, it is our moral duty as citizens to, as my hero Frank Serpico says in the header of my blog:

“Sometimes you have to go up against the odds to do the right thing.”

This IS the right thing: to change the gun laws to take these weapons off the market.

The NRA needs to do the right thing and realize that it’s time to change their stance. Although an organization which not only teaches respect and responsible ownership of firearms, it should soften its testosterone-soaked good ole boy image. Democrat Rep. John Yarmuth (Ky.) said: The NRA“has spent untold millions of dollars instilling fear in our citizens and our politicians,” and that the NRA, “wants us to believe that the best protection against the irresponsible and lethal use of guns is for everyone to be armed.”

The NRA has a chance to do better by the victims of all the deaths caused by military-type assault weapons and semiautomatics over the years. Its radical stance on the literal interpretation of the Second Amendment must come into modern times. Through fear it has repeatedly told its members that the administration is out to take their guns away. This just isn’t true. Now it’s time for the NRA to make some concessions in gun laws. In this way it can help save lives.

Contact the NRA's Law Center:
https://www.nraila.org/secure/contact-us.aspx
NRA, general contact: http://contact.nra.org/

The movie industry, video game manufacturers and music industry can remember and honor the innocents by changing what is offered in theaters, in musical endeavors and video games to impressionable children. Violence begets violence. Glorification of killing from any genre: movies, games, music and on television leaves indelible impressions. Children have become desensitized to violence. They learn from what they see. Undoubtedly, one lesson which seems to have been gathered by our young is that to deal with bullying by killing or using violence. This is an unacceptable behavior in adults, but in children? How many of the past school shootings were sprouted from the mind of a child who was bullied?

Contact the Motion Picture Association of America:
http://www.mpaa.org/about/contact

Contact the Recording Industry of America:
1025 F ST N.W., 10th Floor, Washington, D.C. 20004
or at 202/775-0101.

Contact Video Game Manufacturers:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_game_publishers

In the coming days and weeks, do not forget. Do not let our members of Congress forget, nor the House, or the Senate. Contact the NRA even if you aren’t a member. Do the same to the music and television industry and video game manufacturers. Remind them that they too, must have a hand in responsible use of the media.Remember the innocents.

Out of this horrific tragedy can some good and hopefully all of us can make this country a safer place.