"An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted." - Arthur Miller

Monday, December 17, 2012

Newtown: "These tragedies must end."

I am not a parent so I can't grasp what these parents and the community of Newtown, Connecticut are going through. As a human being I am just sad and my heart aches for the pain that has been caused. Twenty-six dead. Twenty of them first graders, children who had not lived long enough to deserve anything but our patience and love. All wiped out because Adam Lanza took several assault weapons from his mom, killed her, and then preceded to walk to Sandy Hook Elementary and began his assault on innocence. We probably will never really know why. I have no words for what happened. I wish I did.

What I do have is anger. This just happens to often and in almost every case it seems to involve weapons of war. Not defense, not even hunting but weapons specifically designed for soldiers at war and thanks to the efforts of the NRA and the Republicans, have someone become classified as needed for home use. Weapons of war do not belong in any home. I know, Fox News and the Republicans will say "Now is not the time." Which is bullshit. They have no problem throwing random darts at the board and blaming movies, TV, video games and anything else they can make up on the fly. We have no idea what interests Lanza had to even hazard a guess on his motivations. If they have time to spew their theories, if many of them can hop on Fox News and decide the solution is to turn teachers into armed guards, then now is most definitely the time to talk about getting these weapons of war out of the hands of civilians and only in the hands of those trained to use them only at times specified by our nation's interest.

As President Obama said at Sunday's memorial service to the victims, "These tragedies must end." Sadly we keep saying that after each mass shooting. The political will to do anything does not seem to exist. The democrats are cowards afraid to make any moves and the Republican party have made it clear that their fealty to the NRA trumps Americans. Solutions do exist. Countries all over the world have implemented them. The result has been a consistent drop in murders with consistent drops in crime. And only a tiny fraction can point to a school of children being shot for no real reason. Meanwhile we have dozens of examples. The pride we should have for twisting the 2nd amendment to protect weapons that no one outside of soldiers on the field of battle have any reason to own.

I suspect what will happen is more money will be spent putting metal detectors and guards at school entrances and exits. Talk will continue to ban games, create "safe" times for children and other irrelevant things. The one thing that will remain untouched is those damn guns. Apparently something more precious then our children. Maybe my nation will surprise me. If recent history is any guide the Democrats will make token efforts, the Republicans will happily block it and once again nothing will be done.

1 comment:

  1. While I agree nothing is more precious than children, your idea of banning "assault" weapons is a misguided attempt at totalitarianism. Statistical facts show cars kill ten times more and smoking kills hundreds of thousands times more than "assault weapons" per year. And your arrogant idea of "twisting" the 2nd amendment is a weak, sick, pathetic, half hearted attempt to suit your personal bed wetting agenda. Lets "twist" the 1st amendment and wipe out our freedom to assemble, the press, to petition our government. How about the the 5th, lets wipe the right to due process, lets bring back double jeopardy. Or we could twist the 13th amendment and make people slaves again. You need to understand the rights you afford are secured by the 2nd amendment, period end of story. Denying anyone the right to have the same weapon a criminal would use is sick and self serving. At the end of the day laws only effect law abiding citizens and criminals will always find access to weapons. They do in supposed "gun free" countries...

    ReplyDelete