Since we were shocked, shocked, by Columbine, and our hearts went out to and we prayed for the victims and their families, and some of us called for new gun laws and others said guns don't kill, people kill, and politicians prattled platitudes on one hand while the other hand pocketed millions in bribes from the NRA and gun and ammunition makers, and Michael Moore plunged headlong into making a shocking, shocking movie called Bowling for Columbine and the NRA spent more millions bribing more politicians who blathered refutations of the movie and after a while we forgot about the kids killed in the Colorado high school and went back to watching Fox and stewing about which celebrity was being unfaithful to which other celebrity . . .
. . . .since that time there have been 25 mass slayings in public places in the United States. Schools, workplaces, hospitals, religious places, government places, business places. At least 237 Americans have died in these shootings. Another 220 or more were wounded. The dead include at least 52 children. Since 1982, this country has experienced more than 60 mass murders by firearms. More than three quarters of the weapons used in these assassinations were legally obtained.
"The Columbine Massacre changed the way society looked at children and at schools," a contemporary historian wrote. "Violence was no longer just an after-school, inner-city activity. It could happen anywhere."
Today, anywhere was an upscale New York exurb called Newtown, Conn., and the school was Sandy Hook Elementary and 20 little kids are dead.
It was the seventh mass slaying by gunfire in the United States in the calendar year of 2012.
What is wrong with you, America? Why in the name of whatever god you invoke to decry each tragedy, and then forget about it, do you not rise up and demand that your governments do something to stop this carnage?
The Second Amendment "argument" is sheer bovine excrement. We must round up and destroy the guns in private citizens' hands and pass iron-clad laws that prohibit unauthorized persons from possessing them. All kinds of guns, not just so-called "assault weapons."
This isn't the time to bring up gun control, a White House spokesman said.
More bovine excrement! If this isn't the time, when the hell is the right time? After 500 more are dead in mass killings? A thousand more? After an unarmed citizen is no longer able to go safely into a shopping mall, send his kids to school, go to worship, browse in a library or sip a mocha in Starbucks without their being in danger of death by gunshot?
Act like a President, Barack Obama. Go before the Congress tomorrow and demand sweeping gun control legislation.
Act like responsible leaders, members of Congress. Start today to frame such legislation.
Seize the day, governors of the states, mayors of cities, legislatures, town councils. Draft your own gun control measures.
Stop the carnage now.
"Don't tell Momma I'm a journalist; say I play the piano in a whorehouse."
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