I have tried to keep this blog mostly lighthearted.  I don’t like to get caught up in political slander.  I don’t want to spread ignorant rumors.  I don’t subscribe to conspiracy theories.  However, I’ve decided to adopt a new philosophy.  It’s simple really.  I Don’t Do Stupid.

The only way to call out Stupid is to talk about it.  I have come to realize we have been battling Stupid for as long as humans have learned how to communicate with each other.  The main character in the movie, Forrest Gump, adamantly spoke out against Stupid.  Every time someone asked if he were stupid, he quietly but unequivocally answered, “Stupid is, as stupid does.”  Forrest wasn’t stupid.  Maybe his IQ score was a little south of average, but he was wise in his simple way.  If you have not seen the movie then I would recommend it.

I don’t fully understand people who insist on being Stupid, but I do understand how we have allowed people to continue being Stupid.  We dismiss it.  We don’t talk about it.  We don’t want to get involved with it.  Why?  I think because we don’t want to acknowledge that there are more people who are Stupid than we realized.  (I could be politically correct and say people who do Stupid things, but I think simply calling them Stupid is more accurate.)  We have tried to be kind.  We have patted Stupid on the head like it is a poor creature to be pitied.

But we have allowed Stupid to infect us because we have tried to be kind and not point our fingers at it.  We have allowed Stupid to have a national stage.  We have legitimized Stupid by ignoring it.  Now, Stupid is not to be pitied.  It is to be feared.  By doing nothing to counteract Stupid, we allowed it to grow into something that threatens society.

Now is the time for Americans to grow up, to stop being entitled, spoiled brats.  Our Bill of Rights is there for all people, not just a few that want to cherry-pick the pieces of the Constitution that suit them.  Just because the 2nd Amendment gives us the right to bear arms does not mean we have to allow citizens to own weapons of mass destruction and assault weapons (like the AR-15).  If people are so paranoid that they need assault weapons for protection then I would argue that they may have mental health issues and should not be allowed to own weapons at all.

Today, I saw news articles about people who are saying that school shooting are hoaxes.  They are saying the teenagers who are advocating gun control measures are not really students from the schools that were attacked.  They continue posting these things regardless of the factual evidence.  That is Stupid.

People say we just need to keep weapons out of the hands of the wrong people:  criminals, the mentally ill, etc.  That’s true, but no one suggests how to do that.  How do we determine if a person is mentally ill?  Not everyone with a mental illness exhibits obvious symptoms.  Mental health is protected medical information.  By law, we cannot compel people to reveal that information.  How do we know if a person is going to commit a crime after buying a gun?

Representatives and senators are saying that gun control legislation will not keep people safe.  That’s true.  However, doing nothing accomplishes nothing.  Limiting the type of weapons available to the public can provide a higher level of safety.  Making background checks mandatory for every type of gun purchase can provide a higher level of safety.  We have to be mature enough to accept that we cannot continue to allow unrestricted access to guns.  We have to stop this obsession with playing with guns.  It was okay to play with toy guns when we were children.  We have to grow up and start acting like adults.

We have to stop being Stupid.  There is no excuse for it anymore.  People are dying because of it.  I think we should all adopt the philosophy, I Don’t Do Stupid.