Some would say it started in 1984 when the automatic weapons ban law was left to expire.

Others would say it began before that, when crime rates were “high” and this became the political spotlight.

Still more would say it began during the Great Depression, when gangs fought over bootlegging territories.

Or, did it begin when one party, the Glorifiers Of Putin (GOP), saw that they were becoming a minority party and decided that in order to win, they had to have a way to divide our populace?

Faced with that fact, the Republicans decided to run with the unstated dividers of “God, guns and gays.” These were always hot-button issues in our country.

Religions throughout history have started wars, slaughtered peoples, and to this day are still at each other’s throats.

(Sidebar: After 9-11, why didn’t all the world’s religions have a World Council of Religions meeting and agree that one principle, which they all could agree upon, was peace and the betterment of our planet, including a “war on climate”?

So, what could the GOP offer for religions?

Therefore to get the Catholic and Evangelical vote, the hot issue was abortions, so a stance was taken against abortions. And since most of these voters were white, how convenient to include guns to protect yourself from people of color (those people).

And, of course, what about those who just did not fit into their whiteness, others of any color with “different” sexual preferences that did not fit their mores?

However, they were so successful with their plan, how could they put the “Gs” back into the bottle, especially guns. As each gun massacre happens, doesn’t the “good guy” behind the gun ring hollow as good guys with guns are also being killed?

Plus, with body armor, the killers are now able to defend themselves for awhile. And the killing power of the military-style weapons designed to produce maximum damage to the target, are not only killing but also maiming people for life!

Now that this country has more than 400 million weapons in a minority of our citizens’ possession, what can we do? The Republicans still see this as a winning strategy, “Damn the people being killed, full speed ahead!”

However, I propose another solution, which was used by Pauline Sabin and her Women’s Organization for National Prohibition Reform of more than one million members, who were able to convince some members of Congress to introduce legislation and got Prohibition overturned.

What they said was, “Enough is enough.”

What we need now are more Pauline Sabins, women who are sick and tired of seeing somebody’s child killed, no matter the age of the victim.

Women, who are tired of hearing about school “lockdowns” (personally, I detest that term).

Women, who have gone through the pain of birth and have nurtured their child, to only have that child killed by a weapon of mass destruction.

Women, who can see that no matter the race, skin color, or sexual preference of the victims, they all have the right to life.

“They” can tell us what to do with our “bodies,” but “we” cannot tell “them” what to do about “guns!”