“Let me be clear regarding the concert for Sandy Hook given much of the erroneous reporting thus far. As a gun owner, I support gun ownership. I also believe that with gun ownership comes the responsibility of education and safety – most certainly when it relates to what we value most, our children. I can’t imagine anyone who disagrees with that,” McGraw said in a statement to Fox News. “Through a personal connection, I saw first-hand how the Sandy Hook tragedy affected families and I felt their pain.The concert is meant to do something good for a community that is recovering.”
Really? Tim McGraw has to explain himself for playing a Sandy Hook benefit? Sandy Hook Elementary School is where in December 2012, 20 year old Adam Lanza took his Mom’s s Bushmaster XM15-E2S rifle (why she would need that dastardly weapon…) shot his Mom dead then went to the school and slaughtered 20 school children and six teachers. That the NRA would rag on McGraw, whose “fiddler Dean Brown, is a close friend of one of the Sandy Hook Promise organisers, a man who lost his son in the shooting” is beyond bad taste and close to terrible PR.
The NRA claim the Sandy Hook Promise concert advocates gun control, the Sandy Hook Promise state it only wants to keep guns away from children. Me? I support gun control though I am not anti-guns as such, still surely it made more sense to have an armed militia in the late 1700s when you were in the tail end of a war for your existence and every person was a soldier, then it does in the early 21st century when you wanna kill defenseless animals for kicks… And even if not, the weapons available are terrifying. So I am probably closer to McGraw than you’d expect.
What I don’t like is Billy Currington, who pulled out of the performance after pressure: “I’ve never been one to take on controversial issues – I’m a singer. I do feel strongly about honouring and supporting the Sandy Hook community and will be making a donation to a local organisation. I appreciate people’s freedom and passion for whatever cause they want to support, however, I am choosing to step aside from this fundraiser.”
If I ever actually listened to him, I might boycott the sucker.
The thing about gun control is it makes more sense in suburban living, with miles between people, when, really, self-protection may be an issue. And while the “if there are stringent gun controls only the bad guys will have em” is a little on the specious side, please help me find the flaw.
As Billy once put it: god is great, beer is good and people are crazy. If that’s the case, for fuck’s sake watch who you arm.
