Guns; Again
By
Leonard Zwelling
Again.
The country endures another mass shooting. There will be no
trial. The gunman is dead. The scenario that played out from Columbine to Sandy
Hook has taken center stage in our national conscience—for about five minutes.
Americans refuse to stay on task when it comes to gun violence, and that does
include President Obama. He deeply cares about this issue. That much is
certain, but he has been wholly ineffective in convincing a majority of
Americans (or their elected representatives) that the following are inconsistent with a civilized society:
civilians
checks
the mindless infatuation with weapons. Sorry. I understand this offends many,
but that right to offend is one that others fought for, with guns, many times
without killing their fellow Americans. The right to open fire in a night club
with an automatic weapon is not one of those rights.
I
am fine with people owning hunting rifles and side arms for both defense and
use in the wild. I do not understand the need for weapons capable of massacring
multiple victims when that is the sole purpose of said weapon.
If
these gun nuts think that they are going to stock up with sufficient fire power
to overthrow the government, they have not been paying attention to that
government’s capacity to eradicate terrorists with drones from thousands of
miles away (See Eye in the Sky). Your automatic cannot reach a drone.
So
here’s a little suggestion based on my list above.
President
Obama and all subsequent sitting Presidents, please send a bill to both houses
of Congress banning assault weapons, on-line purchases of guns and ammunition,
the purchase of guns at gun shows without the same background checks that gun
stores use, and increasing the waiting period for all gun purchases until a
REAL background check can be done.
This
would deny no legitimate and safe user of firearms in the US access to guns for
sport or self-defense, which is supposed to be what the guns are for.
Keep
sending that bill to Congress every 90 days and request a roll call vote so
everyone will know who voted for and who against. Then never let a week go by
without advocating for the United States to join the rest of the sane world
with a gun policies that actually protect its citizens from killing each other.
I
know guns don’t kill people; people kill people and so do bullets. But only
people with guns kill other people with guns and a bullet is harmless until
placed in a gun.
I
also understand that I am up against a tsunami making such suggestions in our
dear State of Texas where guns are a way of life. For those for whom guns are a
real way of life, this proposal will impose no limits. I am not proposing to
ban guns. I am proposing that we work harder to keep guns out of the hands of
dangerous people, some of who can be identified as dangerous ahead of their
gaining access to the weapons.
You
know this makes sense. Even you junior A Team members out there, no one is
taking away your precious guns. I am just trying to keep them out of the hands
of those who would use them against you before you can even get your hands on
your holster.
