What is the number of collateral deaths that is acceptable as a consequence of allowing those Americans who LOVE guns to stock up on them? Does it matter if there are children or the elderly involved? Enough prayers already, Jesus is not going to come down and save us from ourselves!
We have to admit that we are a violent society, that we have accepted that the solution to all of our problems is going to come out of the barrel of a gun, that the solution is not gun control, or arming everybody, or making schools into prisons. We have a cultural problem that is uniquely our own.
The USA doesn’t have a higher percentage of mentally ill people than Europe, Australia, or Canada. But, we have two or three times the gun deaths per capita. We have almost “cornered the market” on mass shootings! Texas is just the latest, and there is nothing we can do to prevent the next one. No one can deny that we have the best-equipped mass shooters in the world. Military-type weapons are designed to kill as many people as possible in the shortest possible time.
The Texas shooter bought two of the “AR-15” type guns. What did the gun store owner think he was going to do with them? Take out an entire herd of deer?
Gun control alone won’t solve our problem. Prohibiting the sale of assault-type weapons doesn’t begin to deal with the 400 million weapons already in citizens’ hands. According to police reports, guns are among the most stolen items in burglaries. The black market alone will be enough to keep arms in circulation. Please don’t accept the fiction that the “government” is just looking for a way to confiscate your toys. Confiscate 400 million weapons — get real! The Republican Party (the NRA) has always had as its warning, “Be afraid, be very afraid!”
If I haven’t made myself a target yet, I have one more topic. Let’s stop the prayer vigils, and all the rest of the Christian religious references. Nothing amazes me more than the call for people to “pray” to the deity that couldn’t or wouldn’t stop the event that caused the loss in the first place. Personally, I see no evidence that there is anything to pray to. God didn’t create us, we created God! It’s high time we gave up our imaginary friend, and started to deal with our own messes.
Saugus proved that it “can happen here.” Lightning does strike twice. According to Google we have had nearly 200 mass shootings since the year started. In the 10 years from 2009 to 2019 the U.S. had 188 school shootings. The country with the second most was Mexico, with eight. It is far past time to stop this carnage.
And, let’s get the language right. I heard an interview this morning where it was said the 19 kids “passed away.” THEY DID NOT! They were murdered. Let us not “namby pamby” it.
Gary Morrison
Valencia
