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| Young children wait outside Sandy Hook Elementary School after a shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin |
As I write this, AP is reporting 27 people were killed - 18 of them children - by one or more heavily armed gunmen who entered their Newtown, Connecticut Elementary school and began firing at students and school facilty.
But God forbid we talk about gun control.
If these reports hold, twice as many will have died today than in Columbine 13 years ago. In the interim, Americans now own over 300 million guns - one for nearly every man, woman, child and baby in this country.
But God forbid we talk about gun control.
Eight states now allow firearms in bars. In Missouri it's even legal to carry a gun while intoxicated, and fire it, if acting in "self-defense." Kansas lets you carry concealed weapons in grade schools, and Louisiana allows them in houses of worship. Virginia repealed a law requiring handgun vendors to submit sales records and ordered the records they already had destroyed.
But God forbid we talk about gun control.
What's it going to take folks? What's it going to take to make our cowardly politicians stand up to the NRA and to gun manufacturers who profit off the death of young children?
If a classroom full of dead kids won't shock our country into action, I don't know what will. Or does a gunman have to shove a semi-automatic pistol up the uterus of a pregnant woman and pull the trigger before that happens?
The President responds.
While I hear your opinion, and call to action, a recurring problem is the knee jerk reaction. Passing legislation based entirely on emotional response is not democracy. It's grand standing and feel good measures which time after time, study after study, continue to lack any meaningful results.
ReplyDeleteLimiting magazine capacity, and rifles with spooky features is ineffective at reducing lethality or preventing gun crime.
FBI and DOJ statistics, supported by the National safety Committee, show that so called "assault rifles" only account for a extremely small percentage of all gun crime. 0.0007% if I'm not mistaken.
That said, I believe we need to focus on solid deterrents. Restricting my magazine capacity, or making it difficult to reload is easily circumvented by even the most incompetent shooter. Increasing minimum sentences for crimes committed while brandishing, or involving, firearms is a solid place to start, and serves to keep the focus and heat on those who would commit crimes in the first place.
Food for thought.