Scary Stuff

That's what Everytown for Gun Safety is asking.

Orange is the color hunters wear to warn others with guns that they are not targets.

It's an idea originating with the friends of Hadiya Pendleton, the Chicago teenager who died -  a victim of random gun violence - just a week after meeting President Obama in the White House.

Her parents are sympathetic, the story is tragic, the idea is noble.

I'm just not sure I can do it.

I see a holstered pistol once or twice a week, here in Tucson..... and I'm not talking about those on the hips of law enforcement agents.  There is no hologram or license or plastic flag on those holsters, there's nothing to tell me whether the wearer is a good guy or a bad guy or a good guy having a bad day.  And then there are all those concealed weapons which are legal here in Arizona, too.  

At least those are not obviously in my face.

But I wonder, as I wait in line at the grocery store, or at a stop light, just what thoughts are going through the people around me.  I was blind sided once; I'm not anxious to repeat the experience.

And that's why the whole Wear Orange on June 2nd thing is scary.

I try to avoid drawing attention to myself on this issue.  I'm comfortable in large groups, as one of a supportive crowd delivering petitions or attending a press conference at my Senator's local office, but being front and center is not for me.

 My Gabby Giffords Continues to Inspire bumper sticker is now, nearly five years after the fact, less a political statement than a salute to a local icon.  I always hope, as I drive past an NRA-stickered vehicle, that the Ben's Bell's Be Kind flower on the other end of the bumper encourages a smile, rather than hostility towards a political position. 

I'm not proud of being scared.

I'm not ashamed of it, either.

I come by my fear honestly.

Still, I'd like to be leading the charge, using what happened to us as a stick to prod change in the political and social arena.  I'd like to make a big stink, a hullabaloo, a scene - because what happened to me and to Christina-Taylor and to Gabby and Judge Roll and and and and and... it's just wrong.

I'm just not sure that I'm brave enough to walk around town wearing one of these.

If you are, here's the link to purchase them