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Apparently many of our fellow countrymen and women think we still live in the times of Judge Roy Bean and Billy the Kid (reference recent efforts to pardon the Kid in New Mexico). Six lives are snuffed out in a public setting by a mentally unstable young man and what we hear is a cry for less violent rhetoric.
“Use your inside voices children.” “Don’t use swear words kids.” In the hallowed halls of Congress and in the press we hear the words all of us have heard before: “tone down the rhetoric.” Don’t say “reload.” “Don’t say “target” when referring to defeating candidates. Don’t say “set our sights on” if you’re intending to win in a specific district.
I can only find one word for what is going on in this country with regard to shootings and killings: insane. We are crazy when we hide behind slogans like “Guns don’t kill people, people do.” We are crazy when we allow ANYONE to walk into a store and buy a sophisticated tool that is meant to shoot someone else.
What other purpose does a nine-millimeter Glock have? A smooth. sophisticated handgun with an extended clip of bullets in the hands of a young man who has a history of public threats and instability – does this fit your picture of a community in which you want to live?
Why, in the name of God, are we talking about rhetoric? That’s like chastising the adults for sitting in the living room using bad language and still, STILL allowing the kids to go out and buy guns and kill people. (Not that kids are the only one’s killing people by any means but the analogy holds.)
We are collectively putting our heads in the sand when we continually and forever, it seems, ignore the issue of gun control in this country. Supposedly we are among the most civilized nations on our planet. And yet we, as a community of people, allow most any individual who can stand up, walk and talk to buy a handgun or an automatic rifle.
The time has passed, people, when we need a law that allows us to have guns in order to give individuals the ability to defend themselves in case of a revolution or in case our own government gets a little too possessive.
“Well I think we’re the Tombstone of America,” said the sheriff who is responsible for law and order in Tucson. Prophetic words indeed, whichever way he meant them.
How can we get so pumped up about Iran developing nuclear energy and ignore the weapons of mass destruction that go off in our neighborhoods each and every day?
Open your eyes, senators and representatives, and step UP the rhetoric regarding gun control.