95% of Americans support stricter background checks for guns. 79% of Americans support the banning of assault rifles. Guns will kill more Americans in the next two years than were killed in the entire 10 year Vietnam War. And the difference will be more than ten thousand deaths.
I’ve written this column before. Too many times! But it has to be written again because no one is paying attention. We are killing our children so a few stupid, greedy, selfish slobs can have their sport on weekends or make hundreds of millions of dollars from an industry supported in the well bribed halls of congress. We are letting them murder our kids so the weapons industry can make a profit. We are destroying families so that 20% of selfish, uncaring fatheads can play guns with real bullets. Those who read this blog already know what I am about to say because they’ve heard it all before. How many more times do I have to say it before your kid gets shot in the head? How many more families have to have their lives destroyed before the three quarters of the American people who are against the ownership of assault weapons take to the streets, rip the doors off the Capital building and demand that the greedy cowardly scum that sit in the seat of government understand that it is their job to stop this.
Why does this happen and why has nothing been done about it? All you have to do is watch Scott Israel, Sheriff of Broward County, standing before the nation in the first press conferences after the shooting, blaming everything except guns for the problem. He raves about getting more money for more cops, more money for mental health, more bullshit then it seems possible to invent, but he never mentions guns. To be fair, in subsequent press conferences, he spoke about the concept that no Florida politician will be able to get elected after this without a strong anti-gun policy. On the other hand, Governor Rick Scott completely fails to recognize the role that guns have played in this slaughter. He doesn’t seem to see the proximate cause of all this death. This imbecile doesn’t understand that if the killer was carrying a knife instead of a gun, most, if not all of those dead kids would be alive today. Why do you suppose that Scott, ultimately in charge of the safety of the people of Florida doesn’t see guns as playing any part in the slaughter of the 17 people shot in a school in Broward County? Maybe it’s his A+ rating from the NRA or could it be that he is just making a ton of money from the gun industry, money that blinds him to the fact of his constituent’s slaughtered kids. But he’s no different than the rest of the Republicans and many Democrats that care more about their payouts from the NRA than they do about the lives of your kids.
It amazes me that no grieving father, no heartbroken sibling has yet walked into the factory of any of our gun manufacturers and wrought the same kind of havoc that their product has caused in schools across our nation. It astounds me that no heart broken sibling of one of these innocent victims has yet seen fit to put a bullet of his own through the brain of the CEO of one of these death factories. This is not to say that I believe anyone should do such a thing, only that scanning the deadly prattle that emerges from social media, I am amazed that in a society so flooded with vitriol and weaponry, no one has actually retaliated.
The Broward Sheriff commented today that they now thought they knew where the gun this killer used came from. Christ man! Everybody knows where it came from. It came from Remington or Winchester of Mossberg or any one of our other manufacturers of death and it was part of the process that has made them all filthy rich at the cost of our children’s lives.
Rick Scott talks about what has to be done to make the schools safe. Then this moron talks about everything except guns. There is an old saying probably originally written by the NRA that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That’s pure unadulterated bullshit. People may and do want to kill people, but without guns they can’t and don’t. Guns were not prevalent in my youth. People who hated certainly were, but without guns most of them didn’t have the wherewithal to carry out even a single killing let alone mowing down 17 people. Does anyone out there remember even one school shooting before the 21st century?
Watched Gia Loudon, a GOP spokeswoman try desperately to get off the subject when Al Sharpton questioned her about the Trump lack of interest in guns. She stumbled and babbled and went off on the FBI and the Russians just like Trump did. It just illustrated the GOP’s unreality, driven by the NRA funding, that simply won’t deal with the monumental problem of guns, because it will hurt them financially. They just don’t give a damn how many of your kids are dead. All they care about is getting paid. The mangled bodies of your children mean nothing to them as long as the vacation on St. Bart’s looms in their future
It is obvious that the people who have been elected to run Florida have no interest in their first responsibility, the safety of the children who live there. But it isn’t just Florida. Take a look at some of our lawmakers across the country and then tell me that they aren’t on the take from the gun lobby:
Louisiana, GOP Senator Bill Cassidy tweeted about how his heart goes out to all these families. That sounds great until you realize that Cassidy has taken more than $2,800,000 from the NRA. Ohio GOP Senator Rob Portman tweeted even more lovely sentiments. Portman has gotten more than $3,000,000 from the NRA. Iowa Republican Joni Ernst asked her followers to join her in prayer for the victims of the slaughter. She’s collected more than $3,100,000 from the NRA. Florida Senator Marco Rubio got $3,300,000 from the NRA. Colorado Senator Corey Gardner got$3,900,000. John McCain of Arizona has gotten $7,700,000, the most of any politician. Florida Governor Rick Scott, the same clown who conveniently forgot to mention that guns were involved in the shooting in Parkland gets an A+ rating from the NRA, while VP Mike Pence gets an A rating, after he sponsored legislation that allowed firearms to be kept in vehicles, ON SCHOOL PROPERTY! And it doesn’t stop there. Donald Trump got more than $21,000,000 in support of his election. You want to know who’s killing your kids? These greedy pigs are killing your kids. The votes of these disgusting slobs are the reason that 79% of the people of this country that are against assault weapons can’t have their will reflected in legislation.
Donald Trump went on TV and read a very nicely written speech celebrating the victims. He couldn’t make it sound real mainly because like everything else, he’s a lousy actor. But he didn’t mention guns, even once, in the entire speech. It looks like that the NRA’s $21 million was well spent. Trump doesn’t mention guns even though everyone knows that guns are the real problem. He blabs about the FBI and other involved sources but never mentions guns. That $21 million from the NRA has gone a long way. Is the FBI at fault? Did they screw up? Sure! Either them or the ATF or local authorities or whoever is charged with following up on gun applications. Should the processing period be longer than the current three days, just to give the bureaucracy enough time to do a thorough job? Of course, but the NRA, which is pushing the process to fail when it means losing a gun sale, is paying out a ton of dough so that guys like this killer kid in Florida get their automatic weapons and the manufacturer that is sponsoring the NRA gets paid.
There’s also the situation with licenses. Yes, you need one for a gun but gun licenses don’t come with any of the assurances or training that one needs even to drive a car. Gun licenses should not be issued until the buyer passes gun safety tests, just like drivers do. Then, when he’s proved to someone in government that he has the skill and the knowledge to possess a weapon of death; only then should a person get a license and only when he already has a license should anyone be able to buy a single shotgun.
And then there’s mental health. It should be addressed just like any other kind of disease but it isn’t mental health that kills kids, it’s guns! Guns! Guns! Guns! Mental health is the decoy of the gun business. It’s what they talk about as soon as someone gets shot. It’s the “Fake News” of the gun debate. You an be a raving, drooling, maniac but if you don’t have a gun you can’t shoot anyone and any other weapon isn’t really up to the job.
Even if you believe that the current interpretation of the Second Amendment is correct, which this writer has his doubts about, the Supreme Court has been clear about that amendment not covering weapons of war. We must ban all automatic and semi-automatic weapons, including handguns and we must do it now! If you are so bedazzled by hunting that you are willing to endanger your kids and those of the rest of us, the current law forces us to accept your self-indulgence – for now. If you absolutely need a handgun or shotgun to protect your home, even though statistics and common sense tell us that you are more likely to kill one of your own, than to even hit a home invader, so be it. The proliferation of handgun carry permits is ridiculous. There are places in this country where everyone has a handgun on them. The common argument that a good guy with a gun can stop a shooting is all but non-existent. The fact is that anyone who is so cowardly that he needs to carry a gun on the streets is far too much of a coward to get involved in any kind of incident where he needs to actually use his gun to protect others.
So what’s to be done? It’s all about legislation. Without legislation banning any kind of assault, automatic or semi-automatic weapon, there is nothing to be done. But how do we get that legislation into law with all three branches of government and most state governments in Republican hands? You don’t! That’s why the elections in November are so important. Right now most GOP legislators and even a number of Democratic ones are on the payroll of the NRA. I have never been a big fan of making one social question more important than a general policy plan for politicians but this is different. This is about the lives of our children. This one time every candidate must be asked: “What are your plans for gun control? Will you vote to ban all auto or semi-automatic weapons?” That must be the litmus test. How they feel about abortion, birth control, immigration, healthcare, foreign policy or anything else must take second place to the lives of our children. And speaking of birth control, it always gives me a laugh when all the religious nuts come out of the woodwork marching against abortion while carrying their AR15’s. As long as the kid’s in the womb it’s got to be protected but once it’s out, it’s on its own.
Any new law should specify that gun manufacturers or anyone who sells an automatic weapon to anyone who commits a crime with it should be liable for any injury or death caused by said weapons.
One of the biggest idiocies of the discussion is the one that calls for extra guards in schools to prevent these mass slayings. Yeah, like some aging rent-a-cop who can barely get up out of his chair is going to stop a nut with a machine gun. Maybe you haven’t noticed but banks have stopped having guards on their premises because those guards were always the first ones shot and rarely did anything to stop robbers. The exchange of gunfire between a terrified guard who never expected to use his weapon and a nut with a machine gun is more apt to kill lots of people than anything else.
And uniquely enough it’s not the adults but the kids who are taking the bull by the horns and demanding that something be done. The kids are putting together a march on Washington n March 24th to demand that something be done. They are already taking on the politicians, announcing that Marco Rubio and Rick Scott have blood on their hands for talking money from the NRA to oppose gun regulation. Is this fair? Of course it is. These guys were elected to lead and protect their constituents. They haven’t done either. They have taken money to allow gun manufacturers to endanger the children of those who elected them. Yes, They deserve all the blame that can be heaped on them.
I don’t know much about the Parkland School system but those people are definitely doing something right. I have never seen such a cross section of so many kids who are intelligent and well spoken. These are what we need to lead this country into the future.
If you want to do any good you have to take a stand. To get your vote, a candidate must actively oppose the NRA and all its policies. Then and only then can we get the kind of legislation that we need to get these guns out of the hands of everyone. I say everyone because there is no functional way to select who should have guns and who should not. Background checks are minimally useful; banning all assault weapons is the only way to safeguard the lives of our children. It’s not the only way but it’s a start. So the bottom line is; “Get off your asses and vote. Vote for your kid’s lives.” Because from the looks of the Parkland kids, there may actually be hope for the future.