What happens when a person bent on piling up bodies has at least three guns, including an AK-47 assault rifle? In the case that made for headlines this week there were four people killed on a military reserve center.
That people around the nation were shocked over these deaths is perhaps the strangest part to the story. Why would it not be inevitable that in a nation that has a congress and many state legislatures bought by the NRA that a domestic terrorist and acting on what many describe with a ‘lone-wolf’ mentality could get his hands on deadly weapons and mountains of ammunition? After all, many lesser committed people to any ideology were able to amass even larger arsenals for their killing sprees.
No, there was no reason for shock of any kind to this news story as we have brought this madness on to ourselves and are now suffering as a result of allowing the NRA to call the shots. How many times have many of us asked for and demanded reform with gun laws? Even asking for simple proposals such as laws to keep deadly weapons, particularly rapid-fire guns, out of the hands of disturbed individuals and people of ill intent runs into a total wall of opposition from the NRA and the three-thumb crowd who lick their boots.
After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 26 people dead, and 20 of those were children with nothing being done to curtail gun deaths, one now has to ask a real question. In the context of our nation’s gun culture after 20 small children were buried what is the big deal about the deaths of four marines? Mass shootings of this type happen with regularity and no one seems to care enough to make a large enough stink to alert congress this crazy gun culture has to come to an end.
Some are all excited that there is growing evidence domestic terrorists are using the nation’s lax gun laws to their advantage. One has to ponder if that fact will force the NRA and their minions to seek needed changes. But if one is serious about the lay of the land we know better than to even ask.
We have seen presidents shot and even a church group shot to death and nothing meaningful has been done. There is no real reason to now think that terrorism will sway anyone to sanity and pass the laws that are required to stop the carnage.
So this week is was marines, and next week the headlines from somewhere else will report that more bodies were riddled with bullets. For a nation that does not care enough to demand change it is really nothing more than just another reality TV show.
Very sad. But also very true.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 
Norway, Switzerland, and Finland all have higher rates of mass shootings per 1,000,000 than the United States. They also all have very restrictive gun control laws.
Your arguments about the NRA are not rooted very soundly in fact. Stricter gun-control laws are not the answer, but I think we might want to begin enforcing the laws we have.
You are looking at the number of incidents of mass shootings, and not the number of people killed in these mass shootings. As for my understanding of the NRA it seems to be you that is in need of education on the matter. Take time to review what the NRA once was, what its mission turned into, who was responsible for it, and the political mission that now consumes that organization. And since you love large vast uncontrolled amounts of cash into elections you will no doubt admire what you learn.
According to data from OCED Nations, 2009-2013, fatalities in rampage shootings per 1 million residents:
Norway 15.3
Finland 1.85
Slovakia 1.47
Israel 1.38
Switzerland .75
USA .72
Belgium .63
Of these nations, only the USA and Belgium have “permissive” gun laws. The others are “restrictive.” I am unaware if the NRA is active in Norway.
Perhaps your obsession with the NRA is misguided?
You have a reason or excuse for every excess from conservatives. Not just on this issue. Anyone with any sense of recent lobbying history—say over the past 25 years—knows precisely the harm the NRA has done for public safety as it relates to deadly weapons and with the process of effective governing. There is no way for you not to know the history of the NRA as it often cited in many ways when reports are made on either governing and politics, or on the gun issue itself. Your seeming lack of awareness does not make my concern, and those of many others in the nation, over the NRA, wrong or misguided. It just means that you have not done your homework. No matter how you try to spin some narrow point that you seem to think makes some larger impression there is no disputing the facts.
The United States has the highest rate of gun ownership in the world — by far. And it has the highest rate of homicides with guns among advanced countries.
I think it also important to note that in relation to your argument about mass shootings and the international data that as with any such issue over the span of the world that country-to-country comparisons are inherently difficult to make.
I would also note that the term mass shooting is not defined in the same way in every nation. For instance in the U.S. the FBI doesn’t specifically define mass shooting. It does define mass murder, calling it a single incident in which a perpetrator kills four or more people, not including himself or herself. The FBI defined mass murder to distinguish it from serial murder. Given that definition fro mass murder there have been 193 mass murder events with a gun in America since Jan. 1, 2015.
I don’t think the comment that I have an excuse for every excess on the right is accurate. I think my comments on the attempt to stifle the open records system by Walker and the Republican legislature demonstrates that there is some sliver of my mind not given over to partisan hackery. On the other hand, there are no excesses in the abortion rights movement, Harry Reid’s senate, Obamacare, the Stimulus, or any other democratic or liberal agenda item? Certainly, raiding the homes of citizens “somewhat mentioned” in connection to non-violent campaign violations and holding their minor children at gun point and not allowing them to call their parents or ever speak of what has happened is not excessive?
As for the current issue, I just presented the data I recently saw because I thought it demonstrated the point that countries with restrictive gun laws also have gun violence. You dismiss this information and argue that the data is somehow misguiding. Sounds like an excuse, but okay.
It certainly is true that the US has far too many gun related homicides. I would argue that a more important part of the solution than censoring the NRA s to insist that the gun laws we now have are enforced. The current system of plea bargains ensures that “in possession of a firearm” is the first charge dropped in any proceeding. I’m not sure this is the fault of the NRA. Likewise, I’m not sure that the NRA is involved in importing the massive quantities of drugs into our poorest neighborhoods where criminals kill each other over the profits. I’m not sure that the NRA controls the music industry, the motion picture studios, or the gaming studios which treat gun violence as a matter of entertainment. I’m not sure that the NRA is involved in the manufacture and sale of alcohol, but I do know that very few murders are committed by sober people. I would argue that each of these plays a far greater role in American gun violence than the NRA.
I do admit that I know very little about the NRA. I certainly am not a member, and I don’t know anyone who is. I’m sure they use money to press whatever legislative advantages they can–and I’m sure they do so to the very edges of the law. I don’t understand their position on assault rifles, but I understand the slippery slope.
When it was a black church or a school you blog numerous times on the attacks. When it is JUST 4 Marines you nary make an reference to the loss of life and you don’t even take time to honor the 4 Marines and one sailor who were murdered by a islamic terrorist all in the name of the false prophet Muhammad.
pkarm,
If I was to blog every time four people were shot in this nation as the result of one gunman–and there have been over 190 such shootings of four people since January 1st,–I would have to give up my entire life to the cause of such postings. The church shooting had more coverage on CP due to 1) it was a church and a historic one 2) the number of people killed and the fact one was an elected official. Just because the latest major headlines over gun violence involved marines is not in an of itself reason to blog over and over about it.