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I swear, I intended to take a breath today, to step back from the madness, to distance myself from the ugly reality that has surrounded all of us since last Friday's despicable events that occurred in the once sleepy town of Newport Connecticut.

That worked for about 2 hours.

Like a junky outside of a crack house, I was sucked back in the moment I turned on CNN to get an update this morning. As the day went on I got to thinking, I don't remember reading any statements from the never bashful NRA. I was curious as to what they would have said. As it turns out, there have been no statements. Their twitter feed has been dead since last Friday. There Facebook page has been shut down. Not one, "Our condolences go out........"

As I searched, I ran across this Facebook page, "Gun Owners of America." I hopped on there since my day was already ruined, and yes, there it was. "Our condolences go out......." OK, GOA, big ups to you.
As I perused the page I came across an article written by someone representing the GOA, and what he said was that this shooting happened because the teachers in our country are not armed............. WHAT?

He went on to show a picture of a teacher in Israel who had a semi-automatic weapon strapped over her shoulder as she addressed the kids in the class. Again, WHAT? Has it come to that? I personally don't think that's the answer. I have 2 daughters who are school teachers and I can guarantee one thing. They will never wear a semi-automatic weapon over their shoulder. For one thing, they wouldn't know which end was up, and secondly, if it's clashing with their outfit, it ain't going on.

Before I left the Gun Owners of America page, I left a note saying that this page is very very scary. I said that because that page was very very scary. And hear this, if you feel like your not getting the attention you deserve on your own FB page, go to Gun Owners of America's FB page and write something that insinuates you do not agree with their philosophy. My friends, you will get some attention.

What followed for about the next 10 minutes was a back and forth conversation that consisted of 42 comments. Granted, I was called a "lefty", a "Troll" and an "idiot." I straightened that out quick enough. I informed them that I was not a troll, I was a "tree hugger", so please get it right.

Anyway, as I was being attacked like a piece of raw meat laying in Mike Vicks backyard, out of the blue like Clarke Kent came Josie, one of my FB "friends". I'm on a boat in the Gulf and she's in brookhaven, PA, but distance didn't matter. She put on her body armor and joined the ruckus, without thinking twice. She had my back. We come from the same neighbor hood. We both have Chester Creek ( pronounced crick.)water running through our veins.  No matter our political affiliations or differences, she saw one of her own in trouble and dove right in.

She fired back comments at my extremist attackers using reason, comedy and big girl words. You know, complete sentences. Me? I was just being obnoxious. I'll tell you what, that was an aggressive bunch, and hey, THEY HAVE GUNS!

Visiting that site was an eye opening experience, it was like visiting Neptune. I also learned that Josie is as funny as she is smart, with the comedic timing second to none. I was laughing out loud for the first time since last Friday.

I wanted to step back and breathe today, but I didn't. Instead I was shown how serious this situation of gun control is up close. Both sides are committed, we both think we're right. This is going to be hard.

And who is this Josie? Well, I really don't know her that well. She is a good friend of my brother Pat. One day Josie "friended" me on FB. So I asked my brother, "who is this friend of yours Josie." He said, "Just the nicest person you would ever meet."

That's good enough for me. See ya "on the range" Josie.