The latest viral craze sweeping our country, like Duck Face and the Tide Pod Challenge, is even sillier and harder to explain. It's called the Second Amendment Sanctuary.
According to Webster's Dictionary, a sanctuary is a consecrated place for worship. The second definition is a place of refuge or immunity from law, ie, a safe place.
The idea is to make your town or county a place where the proclamations proclaim Obama can't come get your guns. That'll show 'em.
Some of you might well ask, "Obama didn't come for my guns in eight years, what makes you think he's coming now?"
But the organizers respond, "That's what THEY do! They're coming!"
Some of you might then point out that county proclamations don't exactly trump state or national laws. To which the enthusiasts proclaim "Says who? Trump Trump Trump!"
Hard to argue with that. The minority of the population who actually understand our system of government and laws might say "the Constitution" but they're usually shouted down with the MAGA chant.
Some of you might question why guns need a safe space when it is our kids who are shot in schools, our believers who are shot in church, and our revelers who are shot wherever they revel.
To which the Russian trolls running the Republican party say "If they all had guns they'd still be here."
They're quick to point out the recent West Freeway Church of Christ incident was stopped by a good guy with a gun. Which is true. That good guy was a former sherriff who owned a shooting range and was a trained marksman.
So instead of 'well regulated' gun ownership, all we need are gun range owning retired sherriff's at all our public spaces to put an end to mass shootings. Sounds logical to...me?
By that logic we don't need Emergency Rooms either because a doctor saved a guy from choking at McDonalds with the Heimlich Maneuver one time.
No, I might be having trouble with this one. Those folks who are voting for these things have all taken an oath to protect the laws of the states they're in and the country. I'm not sure a proclamation protecting guns over legislation is in keeping with that oath.
I'm thinking maybe this trend has more to do with delusional thinking and political gamesmanship than anything real. Nothing says 'we'd rather pretend like we're doing something than actually work on real problems' quite like proclaiming gun sanctuaries in the most heavily armed country on the planet.
All the second amendment enthusiasts remember 'the right to bear arms' but ignore the 'well regulated milita' part. They're quick to point out criminals ignore laws so why have them?
Clearly, the problem is the First Amendment which not only guarantees free speech but the right to practice any religion you choose. The First Church of Shootyou First has millions of devout practitioners.
A lot of people are going to be sorely disappointed when they find out Heaven is a gun-free zone.