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Joshua Van Ness has been making music for over 15 years as part of the bands Van Ness, and Souls' Release, as well as solo. Joshua and his band MOR will be playing a free show at Brooklyn Academy of Music (30 Lafayette Ave, Brooklyn, NY) on Friday January 4th. The following is an editorial about the recent school shooting in Connecticut. The opinions expressed in this piece are Joshua Van Ness's. Enough is too much I know this is supposed to be a column about my musical adventures over the last 15 years. However, the events of this past week reminded me that my life as a musician, my success and failure stories are completely insignificant. In fact, the stories of even my favorite artists seem unimportant. The difference between me of 15 years ago and the current me is that, today, I am a father. As a parent, I was so shocked and angered by the unthinkable massacre of this past week, that I feel compelled to write about it. Consider yourself warned. Please bear in mind that I do not blame anyone for this. I think it was an unfortunate chain of events and it is possible that it may not have been able to be avoided. Still, I feel that the worst thing we can do is nothing at all. We need to look at this closely and try to prevent it from happening again,. My first problem with what took place is the murder weapon. I support the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. What I don’t understand is why someone who lives in a small town in Connecticut needs a semi-automatic assault weapon. Hunting? No, whatever you kill would be so full of holes that you can’t eat it or hang it on your wall. Self-defense from intruders? No, a hand gun is smaller, easier to conceal and certainly easier to operate. Semi-Automatic weapons are made for one reason and one reason only: To Kill…actually, to obliterate. Quite simply, if one of these things falls in to the wrong hands, or even untrained, inexperienced hands, the result will be horrible bloodshed. Quite simply, we need to ban these weapons. I know that they will still be available on the black market, but let’s at least make it difficult to get your hands on these weapons. Otherwise we are giving suburbanites way too much firepower. If you want to fire one of these things, join the military! My second problem is security. There have been too many events that share commonality with the CT elementary School shooting, to not take security in schools more seriously. I spend a lot of time in New York City. I assure you that I am on camera almost all of the time. Hell, I made an illegal right hand turn off of 18 in N recently, and received photographs from several vantage points of me committing this “crime”. My point, let’s invest in surveillance at our schools. Furthermore, in our lifetime, we have heard of countless stories of police who have shot and killed unarmed individuals. Hell, Amadou Dialou was shot 41 times for reaching for his wallet. Yet this guy essentially walked through the front door and then killed 25 people. I think there should be 2 or more armed police officers at every school. Put a security checkpoint in place. If someone approaches the school with a weapon (remember, it is hard to conceal assault rifles), shoot THAT guy 41 times. My last two suggestions would of course cost money. I think that the safety of our children is worth a few tax dollars. I know that my ideas seem extreme, but we simply have to protect our children. Can you imagine the heartache those families feel? Can you imagine the helplessness that community is going through right now? It is a parent’s worst nightmare to send their child somewhere where they are supposed to be safe, and then finding out that their child will never come home again. It’s just unthinkable. My thoughts and deepest sympathy go out to the families and the entire community of Newtown, CT. Let’s just hope that the trend of these types of violent outbursts will begin to trend down. No one should ever bury their child. Sincerely, Joshua van ness |