Conservatives refuse to entertain the notion that strict gun laws work when other countries show us they clearly do. Why is that? Why would they refuse to look at cold, hard evidence? Because it goes against their ideology.

I was in year six when the Port Arthur massacre happened. There hasn’t been another mass shooting like that since then, because Australia had the common sense to tighten up gun laws.

Often people problems are caused by social problems. You cannot divorce the two. When I was gangbanging 20 years ago, I carried a knife. There’s far less chance of killing someone’s with a knife.

But would you not want to look at how a “nice” girl from a “good” middle class family made her way to gang life?

The only place I didn’t fear being killed as a child was school. After I turned 13 I wasn’t allowed to go to school anymore. School wasn’t great but at least I knew nobody would murder me and I could relax a little.

I ran away when I was seventeen, ended up homeless and on the streets. Gang life was where I found community, friendship, and respect.

Thankfully I found my way out but it was truly and act of God and nothing else. I was self destructing.

Nobody ever gave a shit about my abuse growing up. They knew it was happening too. I became pregnant by my father when I was 11.

Oppressed people make bad choices often because there are only bad choices available.

The people committing mass shooting in the USA are largely from a privileged class of white, straight, Protestant, conservative, men. Of course there are exceptions, but that’s what they are.

It’s not the oppressed that are killing people this way, it’s the oppressors.

I know very few conservatives who accept gay people, even though it’s not their business, and they seem to think it’s open season on trans people. I’m afraid one of these people will murder my daughter for no other reason than she’s trans. She’s already had a gun pulled on her. She’s fifteen, that shouldn’t happen.