Like most around the world, I have held my darling son tighter over the past fews days - I have played with him more, I have not wanted to let him out of my sight. My heart is grieving for the parents, family and friends of the children and teachers that died in New.town. It's incomprehensible to me that these poor parents sent their children off to school, I would have thought not worried in the slightest and that this senseless act would happen.
As a parent, I think that has made us all feel a little sick. That which we have no thought to worrying about, occurring in such a horrifying manner. It has made me ask the question 'is there any way to bring up a child safely?' I am a bit of a worrier by nature and though I do try to minimise the worry, I do tend to try to think of every possible way to keep my son safe but really, how can we when such terror lurks in the world.
My country is not perfect, nor is it a safe haven where nothing bad happens but I am very grateful that we have very strict gun laws. Gun laws that were tightened significantly in the wake of the horrifying Port Arthur Massacre in 1996 in which 35 people were gunned down. The gunman, who has been said to have some mental issues (I mean surely anyone who guns down 35 people does, right?) but was able to to buy a gun without a gun license or even a drivers license. My Mum's second cousin was killed in the massacre and it devastated our country. The government initiated a 'buy back' of guns, funded by a tax payer medicare levy that cost $350 million. At the time I remember thinking 'worth it'.
I know that the United States has much greater population and prevalence of guns amongst the population than we had but I hope that the government can enact some tighter gun laws, in my humblest of opinions, this can only make a positive difference. As I say, this is not to say that my country is perfect, indeed there have been a couple of worrying murders over the past few months of women by men (who were let out of jail despite having extension criminal records and one of whom a judge referred to as being 'not able to be rehabilitated') - I walked the 50 metres to my car in the city on Saturday night very carefully and with breath held until I got in the car and locked the doors.
My heart breaks for the poor people of New.town - I hope that they are able to grieve and mourn their losses in private, away from the glare of the media. I can't imagine what these poor souls are going through and the days, weeks and months ahead of them much stretch out into eternity. I hope they find peace.
Bit of a rambly post, I have not meant to be preachy but it is just so hard to imagine that something like this could even happen. I don't actually understand how another human being could do this - to me it seems that they must be a part of a completely separate species. It is so incomprehensible.
