here's the thing: as a nation, we're better than this.

Here’s the thing: if there was anything I could do to prevent another family from losing their dad because of a plane engine malfunction, I would do it. 

I would sacrifice my time - and my reputation- to prevent any wife from having to retrieve their husbands belongings from the hospital and fill out forms to donate his corneas and tissues. 

If there was some sort of law or ordinance we could change that would have even POSSIBLY prevented that engine valve from sticking open and causing my dads plane to plummet to the ground, I’d fight for that law to pass, and pass quickly. 

If there was something that could be done to prevent another 26 year old daughter from visiting their dad's crash site and seeing the mangled plane, I’d stand on a corner with a poster chanting about it. You can bet I'd call my senators about it, if that might help.  The pain and the grief is so much that I’d do whatever I could to keep just one family from going through what we went through. 

Here’s the thing: I recognize my dad died in an accident. I understand shit happens, that crazy people will always be crazy, and we can’t all walk around in bubble wrap and hope for the best. But here’s another thing: my dads plane was required to be inspected, regularly. And it had been. Its the law. People suggested we sue- sue the engine manufacturer, they said. Sue the inspector himself. Just a few months prior, my dads small, two seater Piper Cub airplane was given an annual stamp of approval. Just two years prior to that, Dad had flown it to Montana and back over the course of a week. But my mom chose not to sue - she didn’t want to put Dads death on someone else’s shoulders. Nobody wanted Dad to die. 

That is not the case in America’s mass shootings. Last week in Vegas, someone aimed to kill. He aimed at fathers and mothers and sons and sisters. The year before in Orlando, someone wanted death and grief to come. In Newtown, in Charleston, in Columbine. 

Here’s the thing: my mom was a political science major, and my dad was very politically inclined. We talked about politics and current events a lot as a family. My dad talked to  us on several occasions about the importance of never voting straight party ticket. He said to look at every candidate. Yes, he voted mostly republican, but he explained to me and my brother that every candidate deserves a chance, and if you vote down the party ticket, you might miss a really smart Democrat who deserves the office more than the Republican. I love his logic, his openmindedness. We sure seem to need more of that lately. 

You may have heard Jimmy Kimmel's emotional monologue this week, where he described a terrible hotel fire in Vegas that happened while he was growing up. Another hotel fire happened again the following year, and the city realized they needed better laws. They needed stricter fire code safety and building standards, so the city came together and created them. 

Laws were already in place to protect pilots like my dad - and their families. Laws already existed to lessen the number of times a state trooper shows up to tell a wife of 30 years that their will not be any more anniversaries. 

Here’s the thing: I think my dad's death keeps me realistic that laws won’t solve the entire problem, or prevent every single death. The laws about plane inspections didn't save my dad. I understand that laws don’t solve everything and that shit most definitely happens. 

(For anyone out there grieving, I’ll tell you something that isn’t true: “God doesn't give us anything we can't handle." That ain’t in the Bible, sister, and it ain’t the truth. Everything happens for a reason isn’t in the Good Book either- but I’ll tell ya what is: His promise to work good through all things, even the really crappy can’t ever understand it things. Romans 8. Also, it says God is love. God is not mass shooting or plane crash or cancer. God is LOVE. People mean well, but they get confused, and they stupid stuff, myself included. But don't cling to that. You're not given grief because God thinks you're strong enough to handle it.) 

I’m getting to the point, so hang with me- 

I buy into the cliches that we toss around as a society, like guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I get it. 

But I also agree with Jimmy Kimmel - the founding fathers did not want to ensure we had automatic weapons or those block bullet things. How about we all get muskets? Im okay with that. 

Why can’t we feel comfortable enough to announce that we're Republicans and admit that we are for better gun control?  I interned for the Bush White House for Pete’s sake - I’m a pretty devoted GOP supporter. At least I was before this dumpster fire waltzed into the oval, but that’s a discussion for another day- or how about never.

Why can’t we tell the NRA to stick it where the sun don’t shine and let’s pass some laws that make sense?? Why can’t we do what they did after those hotel fires and rally as a society and make things safer for each other? Why does it feel like we believe these things together, and we want change, and then we hear crazy statistics coming out of Washington and we hear, nope, that bill didn't pass, no background checks at gun shows. WHAT?! WHY? 

Here’s the thing: if my dads death had not been an accident, if anything could have been done to possibly prevent someone else from living through the hell we’ve been through, I would go and do it. Even if it was hard. Listen up congresspeople: EVEN IF IT COST ME MY JOB. 

And though the Lord has loved us through Dads death and shown us his goodness and grace through every turn during our grief - I still want Dad back. I still want him here to be a grandfather and to go for bike rides with me and to be here for Gentry and all of us. 

Those fifty-nine souls who were killed last week - they deserve to have lived out their days and met their grandchildren. Is there a law or an ordinance we could pass so that another crazy SOB doesn’t hole up in a hotel room with eighteen guns and the ability to fire hundreds of bullets so quickly? Let’s talk about it. Because I don’t know that any of us really care about what the millionaire NFL players are doing during the national anthem anymore. We’ve got fifty-nine families that don’t give a damn if the President of the United States thinks the NFL players are SOBs this week. They’re planning funerals. Fifty nine families are planning funerals. And five hundred more families are carrying for their wounded loved ones. And we should be planning and discussing what can be done legislatively to make this harder to ever happen again. 

Here’s the thing: as a nation, we’re better than this. We’ve done hard things before. We’ve gone where there isn’t a clear path and left a trail. 

There isn’t a clear solution to gun control or guidebook to fix this. But we have reasoning, and love for our neighbor, and the time to act is now. The waters may be murky, but surely we can wade through. I’ve had a loved one here one day and gone forever the next, and it’s almost unbearable. Whatever we can do as a country and community to prevent that from happening to anyone else, we should do it.  We are a nation of trying and failing until we get it right. And this is something we have got to get right.