Friday, January 18, 2013

Guns and the Ordinary

President Obama and VP Joe Biden have begun to offer up some proposals for new gun legislation and the right, predictably, is fretting that we're going too fast.  Meanwhile, James Holmes, the Aurora, Colorado theater shooter has made his first court appearances, and the NRA is once again pointing out that it's not guns, it's mental illness.

On quick question for the gun lobby.  Does that mean that they support a not guilty by reason of insanity finding  for Holmes?  If so, I congratulate them and add my support for that position.  Of course, that's highly unlikely.  Knowing the far right, I suspect that they'll try and have it both ways.  The insanity of the shooter means that the easy access to guns is not relevant to what happened at Virginia Tech, Tucson, Aurora, and Sandy Hook Elementary, but by god, we'll take that nut out and hang his ass by the neck until dead.  (Or shove in the needle as the case may be.)  I have to say, though, the gun nuts may be right.  The crazies will out.  But, are the anomalous mass shootings, tragic though they may be, the real gun problem?  I think not.  The real gun problem is.....

Husband shoots wife, wife kills husband, six year old finds family gun and shoots four year old sibling,  fender bender and one guy pulls his nine mil from under the front seat, drunk gets asked to leave party and  returns with his shot gun, drug deal gone bad, drive-by, man looses job and he decides to kill himself, wife and kids,  stupid young man feels disrespected, scared neighborhood watch member shoots young black man wearing a hoodie, and it goes on and on and on and on.  Start dealing with the ordinary, day by day gun violence, and I'll be impressed.

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