I would like to say I was shocked about the horror that took place in Aurora, Colorado regarding the massive slaughter of innocent people by guns. Early reports stated the gunman had at least four guns — an “AK type” rifle, a shotgun, and two handguns.
The truth is I am not shocked, and if my readers are honest they are not shocked either.
Gun violence in this nation is an accepted norm given the many ‘rights’ that the gun industry has forced on the nation, and which the NRA has bought and paid for with a compliant congress. A congress, I might add, that has been in the hands of the NRA for decades. The end result of such callous gun laws can be found at the morgues of Aurora today. Members of congress who are owned by the NRA should be forced to visit the loved ones who will soon be burying the dead.
Today there had to be response from the White House press room to questions posed by reporters. But the answer that Press Secretary Jay Carney provided was limp. There is no mood in an election year to show spine or moxy and confront the real villain in this story, that being the NRA.
“I would say as you know the president believes we need to take common sense measures that protect the Second Amendment rights of Americans while ensuring that those who should not have guns under existing laws do not get them,” White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said during the press gaggle en route to the nation’s capitol. “We’re making progress in that regard in terms of improving the volume and quality of information on background checks but I have nothing additional on that for you. This is obviously a recent event.”
For a long time I have argued that a needed conversation on the role of guns in America was required, along with the frank discussion about the controlling influence of the NRA. One would think given the rampant gun deaths taking place across the nation in our urban centers, and the young faces of our society being sent to the morgue at an early age such a conversation would be well underway.
It has not yet even started in any way that really matters.
When asked about this massive toll of death and blood from a gunman New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said “maybe it’s time that the two people who want to be president of the United States stand up and tell us what they’re gonna do about it.”
Yeah….right.
I can guarantee no honest answers to that question in an election year when the only thing that matters is the number of electoral votes needed to win the White House.
We now live in a land where at any time you can be killed by a gun.
Children playing outside.
Homeowners sleeping at night in their bed.
Movie-goers relaxing to a Hollywood event.
The conversation that is needed revolves around the number of guns that get manufactured in this nation, how gun shows are allowed to operate, the number of guns that one can purchase as well as the number and type of bullets. There is a whole series of actions that can take place legislatively to curtail the gun slaughter that this nation witnesses far too often.
In our urban centers the killings happen almost daily, but get treated as just another sad news item. The nation stops for a moment, however, when the massive shootings take place, and for a moment we ponder the craziness of the gun laws that allow this carnage to happen.
But then the baseball games begin, the cookout is to start, there is a move to go to…….
It is time to stop and truly engage each other on this issue, and start a national dialogue about what type of nation we want, and who gets to call the shots. Every pun intended.
Will the NRA be allowed to control congress and set the laws of this nation so no place is safe from the possibility of gun violence, or are the people of this nation going to show once and for all that the tail does not wag the dog.
I am not optimistic about the answer.
But I feel a need to try to make a difference.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Here we go again. But you are right, if we take the guns out of the hands of law abiding citizens things like this will never happen. Maybe if we would not have worked so hard to remove God from our everyday life, stop trying to break down the nuclear family and stop saying the trash that we allow on tv and in the movies is acceptable maybe, just maybe we could reclaim this country.
Just because you make guns illegal doesn’t mean folks won’t get their hands on them. Many things are illegal and yet criminals don’t seem to mind… because they’re criminals.
I read in at least one article that this guy was a PhD student. Do you think a man with an education like that would be unable to track down and obtain an illegal item?
I don’t understand why folks don’t understand this.
The Felons actions had nothing to do with the NRA. It is pathetic, IMO, how so many use tragic events like this for their soap box rantings.
As a NRA member, i am outraged with your little story, more so at what had happened!!! The members of the NRA are law abiding citizens who either are ex or current Military, Law Enforcement or avid hunters. Most of us have carrying permits to carry legally owned hand guns, and would have tried with all our might to stop the shooter. It’s asshats like you with your little stories and brain dead idiots in Washington, that let this happen!!!!!
The reason those people died was because Cinemark prohibits the LEGAL carry of firearms. The NRA had nothing to do with it. If the NRA had their way, someone else in the theater would have been armed and the damage would have been much less severe. Stop using this tragedy to promote your own un-American agenda. If you don’t like firearms move your useless carcass to China. They don’t allow their citizens to defend themselves.
Just two quick questions for the gun lobby after today: http://andreasmoser.wordpress.com/2012/07/21/aurora-questions-gun-lobby/
Anytime anything is made illegal in this country we are asking for more criminal activity. Drugs are illegal and how many people are arrested each year for the selling and use of drugs? Why would banning guns be any different? How should I protect my family when a criminal with an illegally obtained gun walks into my house and starts shooting…I don’t know about you but I’m way more accurate shooting a gun than throwing a kitchen knife! No doubt had it been illegal to own a gun this man would have found a way to obtain one, make his own bullets (yes people do that) and still go on his crazy rampage. It is a terrible thing when guns are used for anything other than protection or hunting but in my opinion it would have happened regardless of any laws or restrictions set in place. I fight for my gun rights because I hunt to provide food for my family. Unfortunately where I live everyone isn’t fortunate enough to be able to go to the grocery store and buy food all of the time we have to find ways to survive without going shopping including planting and raising our own gardens. Just my two cents from a different point of view!
You think that banning guns will stop criminals? How’s that working out for marijuana, cocaine, heroine, meth and so on? They are all illegal yet they are all easily acquired. If you were going to rob a business, would you rob one with armed security everywhere or the one with no security at all? That’s exactly what this guy did. He knew there would be no armed people in that theater. This just proves that disarming people only makes them victims. If you want to be a victim that’s fine but leave my right to protect myself and my family alone!
What about where these tragedies usually happen are gun free zones? A lawful gun carrying citizen is not going to risk losing that right by taking their weapon to a place where they are not allowed. It is against the law to carry a weapon to a paid public gathering. Examples are concerts, the stare fair and movie theaters. These tragedies happen because there is not at least one armed law abiding citizen there to possibly stop it. I say possibly because there are numerous what ifs’ involved.
Becca –
OK, so banning guns is not the answer. What is the answer? I really find it disheartening that those who are bound and determined to protect the right to bear arms do so by telling us what can’t be done and what doesn’t work. Turn that around. Make a proposal for something that will help prevent future occurrences like Aurora.
I find it absolutely intolerable that this is simply an acceptable consequence of our right to bear arms.