I Feel Bad That I Don’t Feel Bad

In the hit Broadway show A Chorus Line, the character Morales recalls the story of her drama instructor Mr. Karp,  who tormented her, calling her “nothing.”  Years later, Morales learn that Karp had died and sings “and I reached on down to the bottom of my soul and cried….cause I felt ‘nothing’.”

Tuesday in Arizona, a 9 year girl old shot and killed her fire arms instructor with an Uzi. My first reaction was that I felt nothing. Now as I think about this, I realize I’m feeling many things. I am sad that a man who had served our country had been shot and killed. I am amazed that parents thought it was OK for their 9 year old daughter to be shooting an Uzi. I find it incredible that a man who was trained to use an Uzi did not know enough to realize that this young girl would be unable to handle the recoil from that submachine gun when he set it to automatic mode.

Most of all I’m angry. Angry that the entire conversation of common sense gun control regulations in our country is dominated by one side and its fanatical leadership group. A group that refuses to budge one inch on any new regulations, despite the growing outcry from the public, despite the epidemic of gun violence and gun related deaths.

Let me say, I’m not a fanatic in favor of the total ban of all fire arms. Common sense tells me that this is unrealistic in a country where people cling to the “right to bear arms” even when that right was granted in an age of muskets and one shot pistols. You want to own a pistol or two, OK. A rifle for hunting, fine. But explain to me why a 9 year old, or anyone else for that matter, needs to have the right to own, or needs to know how to shoot an Uzi. Makes absolutely no sense no matter how much the NRA spins it.

I guess in the end I really felt a lot of things, but being sad about this unfortunate death is not on the top of my list. Although I am sad. Sad that it wasn’t Wayne LaPierre (President of the NRA) or one his gun toting disciples on the receiving end of that Uzis bullet. If that were to happen, then I’d feel something.