Click Click Boom

This morning, I saw this photo posted on Twitter of a couple of guys in their local Chipotle restaurant. I will not comment on the juxtaposition of the gun with the dude on the left, but I do know you don't have to hunt for your own food in Chipotle nor are you in danger of being invaded by a foreign country or anything else that requires you to carry around an assault rifle.

The "debate" on gun control and gun safety would be nonexistent if our world wasn't so entrenched in fear culture and extremism. The fact is that most people in this country, whether liberal or conservative, are not extremists and it should be possible for the reasonable among us to sit down at the table and come up with common sense regulations.

However, there is not only an element of society seemingly incapable of common sense, there are some also incapable of common decency.

Women who speak out and who promote common sense legislation to protect both members of the general public and the sportsmen and professionals who, for either work or hobby, treat guns seriously and not as toys or props, face attacks that should make anyone who reads about them disgusted.

Probably the saddest example of failing at reason and common decency I have seen is an extremist telling the mother of a Sandy Hook victim that the violent, preventable tragedy that killed her daughter was a hoax and her daughter never existed.

But the actions of ordinary citizens can defeat extremism and the attitudes and policies that fuel the vulgarity displayed above.

The circulation of this photo prompted people of the interwebs, young and old, representing a variety of political platforms and belief systems, to put the pressure on Chipotle, who as a result has asked customers not to bring guns into its stores.

This is the power of reason and of taking a few moments of time to put that reason into action. This is the power that can change the world.