KILLING POLICY
Forget the Movie Massacre Madman.
The world is filled with major league nut jobs lurking in the bushes.
That's not the point.
The point is this:
In the last 60 days, this fellow bought from local shops four guns and 6000 rounds of ammunition, including a drum magazine that fires a bullet every second.
The villain is public policy in America.
We understand the position of the NRA. Cleverly and consistently misreading the Second Amendment, Yankee gun supporters believe in their hearts that they must have the right to own guns, lest they be imprisoned by a totalitarian government.
OK. We get it. Citizens must have the ability to protect themselves from the Official Protectors. Gotcha.
But, tell me this.
When someone walks into a local store and buys automatic weapons and 6,000 rounds of ammo with some loads that will fire with every heart beat, to what party is he heading? A revolution? An uprising? An insurgency?
What is a civilized person in a civilized neighbourhood up to exactly when this is his idea of shopping?
How can a body politic allow the neighbourhood slurpy vendor to dispense this kind of savage fire power like it's Tuscan Chicken Sandwich to go?
No politician in "the greatest country in the world, blah, blah, blah" has to date and to my knowledge had the unarmed courage to stand up to the NRA and its fellow travelers and say, "Enough. We will have guns, but there are some that will not be available and we won't be able to buy Uzi's on the internet."
9 comments:
The sad heartbeat of one mass killing after another in the gun crazed USA, is more than a tragedy, it is a nightmare brought on by those who believe in the fairytale history of the USA.
Today, in many states in the USA, one can purchase a fully automatic assault rifle with all the ammo you need, without hardly any prior investigation weather you are sane or not. In fact, the amount of second hand ordnance available in the good old USA is staggering. Not only can one buy assault weapons, but fully automatic weapons such as Uzi's and other machine pistols, anti tank rockets, grenades, 50 cal. machine guns and mortars. The Saturday night special is nothing but a historical footnote.
Our American neighbours are living in a hells dream where "commies under the beds" mentality, demands that everyone should be armed to the teeth. Those "damned commies" is a phrase one hears over and over again, yet most Americans don't even know what a commie or communist is, but we need to armed all the same.
It is not just the NRA, but a complete political credo that guns makes Americans that has entranced the USA.
If there is a god or a supreme being that oversees all, I must assume that the endless slaughter of Americans due to proliferation of commando style weaponry, is like a "cut of a thousands deaths". One massacre doesn't do much, a couple massacres hardly raise eyebrows, but when they come at a sickening regularity as they do in the USA, our god fearing neighbours to the south have not stop worshiping their golden idols. Religion in the USA, is the worship of guns.
Excellent comment, as always. Thanks.
Firstly, I'd like to begin my comments by saying that I hate guns - guns of any kind. Up until about 4 or 5 years ago, I, 100 percent believed in total gun control - even the complete banning of guns. Then, one day, I found myself coming to a realization. A realization I could no longer stop myself from thinking - drugs are illegal and yet, 365 days & nights a year, I can walk out of my home and purchase any type of drug I want. I asked myself how this was possible since the Govt, via the police and court system made it perfectly clear that in Canada, drugs are illegal. I began to count the decades that illegal drugs have been sold,traded, and consumed in Canada. I lost track after 100 years plus years.
My point is that the Govt(s) can ban guns all they want, but just like illegal drugs are banned, the use and sale of those banned drugs continues to be astounding in it's scope and scale.
If we were all honest with ourselves, we'd have to come to the realization that drugs and guns don't kill people. People kill people (and themselves) via drugs and guns.
I think the root(s) of many of our problems can be found through-out our society (especially in North America).
A great example (I believe) of how North American society is so screwed up that I like to point out often is that we allow our TV stations to air shows like CSI where they depict (often in great detail) people murdering other people in some of the most hideous ways in episode after episode yet if one of those same TV stations dared to show a fully naked human body, the general public and the Govt(s) that regulates them, would go nuts. To me, this is a clear pictures into just some of what is wrong with our society.
A naked human body is dirty, BUT violence is cool.
A lack of roll models in our society that actually stand up and do the right thing rather than doing 'their' thing to get re-elected or make a ton of money is a major problem as well.
One more thing. As a Canadian, I'm getting tired of other fellow Canadians continuously pointing to our American neighbours and casting stones in their direction. Meanwhile, Toronto (part of Canada the last time I was there) has had 27 shootings to date this year - 3 dead this weekend alone. So much for those tough Canadian hand guns laws we often brag about as Canadians.
It's easy when a tragic event (the theatre shootings) takes place to sit back and say, let's ban this and that, it's a much more difficult thing to say (and act) let's look at ourselves in the mirror and ask the real hard questions of ourselves and the society we think we have.
David, as usual, thanks for providing this vehicle of free speech where one can vent David.
Hi Jeff,
While I appreciate your comments, I don't agree with two fine points.
The old saw, "Guns don't kill people, people kill people," I think needs to be massaged to "People with guns kill people."
It would take a highly trained commando unit armed only with knives to kill 12 and wound 58 in a matter of minutes.
But a 20-something academic geek armed to the teeth with repeating assault weapons can cause horrors in a few moments.
Scarcely a month goes by without news of a child shooting his or her brother or sister dead because Dad's locked and loaded pistol is sitting on the back seat of the SUV or on the sofa in front of the plasma. Oh look at this...BLAM!
That news rarely comes from Canada. It comes from America.
America and Canada are not the same place. We have different histories and our present realities are starkly different.
That does not suggest that I hate the USA. I am going to Chicago soon to soak up the architecture, art, baseball, music, food and legendary open-hearted American hospitality.
I trust that I will not be surprised by any uncalled-for lead sandwiches.
I completely agree that accidental shootings in homes of Americans happens way more than it does here in Canada. There's little doubt that having a loaded gun in the house can lead to these accidents and even crimes of passion between family members. However, taking all those locked or unlocked guns out of the homes of these people, would not end random gun crimes & violence. I'm willing to bet that not too many gangsters are buying their guns at Walmart, locking them up in their homes, or registering them once they have them.
As for your comments about America, please don't think that I was saying that you are anti-America. I know that you are not.
I think that we Canadians tend to compare ourselves with the US when really using mathematics to draw conclusions about our two societies is often very misleading simply because their population is 300 million plus, while ours is only 30 million plus. As Canada grows, it's actually amazing how in some ways we are becoming much more like Americans in general. American stores, entertainment, business practices just to name a few. And I'm not saying that's always a good thing either !
A per capita study with the gun deaths and violence in Toronto (and the lower mainland as well) lately with that of many American cities, would shock a lot of Canadians I believe.
Enjoy your time in Chicago. If you ever have a chance to take in a baseball game at the new stadium in the Bronx, I really recommend that you do. On a beautiful day, it's awesome.
I would wager that most of the guns used for criminal activity are purchased in the USA and smuggled into Canada.
In Canada, automatic weapons are prohibited; hand guns are restricted and the rules governing them are long and very strict; long guns (shotguns and rifles) are licensed. I am happy with these rules.
In the USA, with a very anachronistic constitution amendment, from the 18th century no less, permits the ownership of guns. When the American constitutional fathers wrote the amendment, it took about 1 minute for a man to load and fire his muzzle loading rifle. The accuracy was so poor that one stood in more danger being hit over the head with the gun than being shot.
Today, a Mac or M10 can fire 1,145 rounds per minute and I can buy one of these fairly easily in most US states! I can buy one on the INTERNET for $499.00 and I can buy one with all the fixings (silencer, large magazines, etc.) for $1,759.00.
This is insanity and in the wrong hands, a M-10 can be devastating.
What we see in the USA is a decaying world power, held thrall to the gun lobby and the NRA, based on a constitutional amendment what was written when slavery was legal. The fear of American politicians to address the problem and the failure of the American citizen to compel changes to the gun laws, is leading the USA down a very dark moral path, where massacres and butchery has creates their own industries.
I am afraid the dead have died in vain and the Americans will never mature and demand change; sadly they face a very dark and lonely future with their worship of guns.
I think there may be something to what you are saying.
In America if I try to purchase bulk ammonia nitrate (bomb ingredient) it sets off the alarm bells at the ATF. Or if I try to pseudoephedrine (meth ingredient)it sets off alarm bells at the County Sheriff office, who must, by federal law have a meth-watch program. It sounds like you are suggesting a bullet watch. Buy bulk bullets/ assault weapons and it sets off alarm bells and the government starts to watch you.
It's a reasonable idea, the only disadvantage is that it is more "big brother", but in Canada like the USA we have already accepted a loss of our liberties so what's a little more.
Maybe next we can watch the blogs to see if anything politically incorrect or controversial is said, and then the government can start to watch the author.
I guess the question is; which world do you want to live in? One where we are free from government observation and bad things happen to those free people, or one where government overlords the people and bad things still happen.
Yep, no matter how much the government spies on the good people, somehow bad people find a way to do bad things. Terrorists still get ammonia nitrate for bombs, and drug dealers still cook meth, and crazies will still get guns.
I cant add much except that it would seem that as long as I can remeber (Im 59) people in the USA have been dying from gun violence. I dont expect that it will ever stop. Nor do I expect that that North of the 49th where guns are very regulated we are any safer from the violence. Look at the endless shootings in Surrey. South Vancouver at times is a shooting gallery.
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David:
I enjoyed your blog on the Colorado mayhem - and the various comments. I
concur with your thoughts. What really bothers me is that, other than
Michael Bloomberg, and one of the senators from New York, it appears that no
elected official want to take on the NRA, nor has the gonads to take a
strong stand or introduce legislation that stops the proliferation of
unnecessary guns, particularly the automatic stuff.
No only are there insane people buying and carrying guns, there are insane
legislators that turn a blind eye to the effects of this 2nd amendment.
I understand that a president can request the Supreme Court to interpret the
2nd amendment (just as they did with the Obama Care Health Package) They
got a favourable decision on that round.
Apparently, gun killings are the second cause of death in children in the US
(vehicle accidents being the first)
Keep up your good work.
Eileen
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