Our country is becoming an odd place. Seemingly overnight, most people support gay marriage (where it seemed to be very much NOT supported just 5 years ago) and legislatures across the country are decriminalizing, if not legalizing, marijuana. What a liberal country, right?

Wrong. Yes, we (they) are waking up to the fact that all human beings deserve equal rights (case in point, gay marriage) and that smoking the doober (as Dad would call it) is not the worst thing on the planet (though not my cup of tea), but gun control laws still can't get a fair shake!? I just read this article, 'Assault weapons ban dropped from Senate bill' and became so incredibly disheartened. Have we not learned anything since Dec. 14th? Will nothing change? I'm sure we have the NRA and all its power, not to mention the strange Republican fixation with an American's right to carry weapons of mass destruction, to thank for this. But where do we go from here?

I haven't been able to talk/write/think about Newtown since it happened. It's really just too much and the depth of it is to great for me to even begin to go near. It breaks my heart so completely that I am afraid to even let myself open up to it. But, it happened. It touched way too close to home for many of us. And something anything needs to be done to make sure this will never happen again. I know there are no easy fixes and I know the issue is a gazillion times more complicated than just implementing stricter gun laws, but isn't it a start?