This One’s Not On Us – A Millennial’s Response to Parkland.
Addison Richards (WVU student)
The Lone Conservative“Here we go again†was all I could think as I heard the news of the devastating shooting that occurred in Florida. It’s unfortunate that my first thoughts after being informed of 17 young lives lost are those of defensiveness. Maybe I’m a monster, but I don’t think so. Instead those thoughts are the result of 5+ years of experience of the media vilifying me as a monster after every shooting, because I’m a member of the NRA. Through it all, there is a lack of respect.
In this round, the media wasted no time in capitalizing on a ratings gold mine in the blood soaked halls of Parklands High School. Armed with their survivor poster child David Hogg, they flooded the news cycle with anti-gun propaganda, slander, and calls to boycott the NRA.
However, there is only one acceptable way to proceed after something like this. The first is to mourn, as a community, a state, and a nation, for the young lives cut short. Then after a respectful amount of time, to come together to solve this issue and find a way to protect our children.
Typical to modern news cycles, none of this happened. ...
When you take a look at all the factors, the evidence, and the truth, rather than simply swallowing the emotionally driven narrative the media would have you believe, one thing becomes perfectly clear: to all the politicians sacrificing their integrity for a convenient scapegoat, to the media seeking ratings and to David Hogg; as gun owners – This is not on us.
