"We Couldn't Make Up Rules Fast Enough"

My grandparents spent many winters at their condo in Florida. They had neighbors above, below, and adjacent. They all shared an elevator, a pool, and a parking garage. They socialized and organized parties together.

One year, a new neighbor moved in upstairs and began renovating. Apparently, they had a relative staying with them and doing all the work, knocking out walls, and hammering tile into place at odd hours day and night.

It probably wasn’t as bad as my Nana described it to me, but the point is, it bothered her. She brought it to the condo association, and according to her, “We couldn’t make up rules fast enough.”

One rule led to another, and when the desired results still weren’t attained, they enacted yet another rule.

This is how condo associations work. This is how classrooms work. This is how workplaces work. This is how civilized society works. When something’s not right, you address it and try to fix it. If your effort falls short, you keep at it.

Why? Because people are important. Relationships are important. The well-being and happiness of everyone is important.

I’m thinking about this because yesterday, I was at a Fourth of July parade in my town. It was a great time. Sunshine, dancing, fire trucks, silly floats, the high school marching band playing “God Bless America,” and 91 pieces of candy that my kids collected.

Forty miles away, a gunman on a rooftop opened fire on people attending a parade just like the one in my town. He murdered six people and wounded 24 others.

These gun murders keep happening. I’m not going to cite numbers or examples, because if you’re not familiar with the facts at this point, I don’t know what to tell you.

If our country were a condo association, we’d be making up new rules so fast, your head would spin. Are there condo bylaws you need to abide by? Sure, but when a crisis occurs, you act to address the issue. You do something.

“What about the Second Amendment? You can’t take away guns!”

Guns will always be here. Just like someone’s always going to be renovating their condo. That doesn’t mean we can’t regulate the specifics, though. Certain hours are off-limits for renovations. Certain types of guns should be off-limits for private ownership.

That’s a start.

“But the government shouldn’t be telling us which guns we’re allowed to have.”

Really? Because they already do. Delta Airlines isn’t allowed to have a plane with machine guns mounted on the wings. I can’t carry a grenade launcher around in my neighborhood. A lot of weapons are illegal.

AR-15’s are being used in all these mass shootings. Make them illegal!

“But you can’t legislate away evil. People who want to do bad things will find a way to do bad things.”

Okay, but when someone’s installing a bathtub upstairs at midnight on a Tuesday, Nana isn’t going to sit on her hands. Terrorists are shooting up this country with AR-15’s, murdering people in our places of worship, our community gatherings, our schools, our stores. These AR-15’s are shredding the very fabric of our society.

We shouldn’t have to live in fear. This is our country. Let’s start politicizing this. Let’s start legislating our way out of this. Let’s start sending the message that this is not okay.

One new rule might not do the trick. Two new rules might not do the trick. Ten years from now, I want to be able to look back and say, “We couldn’t make up rules fast enough.”

Ten years from now, I’d like our country to be healthier, with far fewer gun murders.

And all hammering noises stopped by 5:00 pm (and 4:00 on the weekend).