“America’s gun homicide rate is more than 25 times the average of other high-income countries. On an average day, 93 Americans are killed with guns; seven of them are children and teens.” – Gun Violence By The Numbers (link below)
So far, the headlines today include two more shooting incidents. One is at a UPS facility in San Francisco. The other is in Alexandria, Virginia where members of Congress and their staff were practicing for a baseball game. Though it looks as if there was a specific victim or victims intended in both cases, this post isn’t about the shooters; I don’t know who they are, and I don’t care to contribute to their infamy. It really isn’t even about the victims and/or bystanders. I am sick in my heart again for all of this, for the continued violence, for our government contributing to violence rather than helping us. And I’m sick knowing it’s going to happen again, possibly as soon as today, and that we will lose children to this preventable nonsense. Sick. And I’m sick of not only feeling powerless but of being powerless because my countrymen choose their representatives so poorly.
Every time this comes up, and that means often in the United States, those who are owned by the NRA, including Steve Scalise, tell us things like “what we need is more guns,” and “good guy with a gun,” and “criminals don’t care about laws” so just hand out guns to all of them, etc. I even went over some of those excuses in a post from April called The Usual Gun Arguments. Then Congress and the NRA go into “sending thoughts and prayers” (translation: we don’t care about you or your kids, and we aren’t going to do shit about guns; we make a LOT of money off you dumb suckers owning them).
especially when the one thing you don't try to take away are their guns
— Kathy Fowler (@aosleather) June 14, 2017
Congress people, are you ready to talk about sensible gun control, yet?
What will it take?
Link: Gun Violence By The Numbers
Link: “Gun Violence in America: The 13 Key Questions (With 13 Concise Answers)” – by Jonathan Stray at The Atlantic (from 2013)
Link: Lessons from Missouri: the Cost of Eliminating Background Checks, Background Checks Work
Link: “Former Rep. Giffords receives tributes at ship commissioning” – by Saba Hamedy at CNN – story on the christening of the USS Gabrielle Giffords on June 10 of this year (just this past Saturday). Ms Giffords was a U.S. Representative who survived an assassination attempt in 2011 which forced her to resign her seat in Congress. She continues to fight for sensible gun laws.
Interesting tidbit: June is Gun Violence Awareness Month.
“Hard copy” of P. Harris and K. Fowler Tweets above:
#MassShooting
For years the people who insist that the Second Amendment means we all get guns have been saying that the purpose of that amendment is so we can take up arms against the government, if the need arises. The GOP and NRA seemed perfectly happy with that idea when the White House was populated by a democrat.
Well, it’s happened. I am not gloating, not happy and not supportive of this tragic assault. Still, I have to wonder how the GOP feels about that “armed against the government” argument now.
Pretty sure the NRA still loves it.