I have been trying to get people to download my book, “Is America Stupid?” and just read the chapter on Guns. Nothing else, just this chapter. I lowered the book to $.99 to make it simple to do so. I wrote the chapter around a year ago and then updated it after the Aurora shootings. It basically says what everyone is saying now with just a little more history and more direct blame for these nightmarish tragedies. You can download it from the Website, but please read this response to an impassioned Joe Scarborough.
First, here is what Joe Scarborough had to say on his show this morning:
“Politicians can no longer be allowed to defend the status quo. They must instead be forced to protect our children. Parents can no longer take “No” for an answer from Washington when the topic turns to protecting children.
The violence we see spreading from shopping malls in Oregon, to movie theaters in Colorado, to college campuses in Virginia, to elementary schools in Connecticut, is being spawned by the toxic brew of a violent pop culture, a growing mental health crisis and the proliferation of combat-styled guns.
Though entrenched special interests will try to muddy the issues, the cause of these sickening mass shootings is no longer a mystery to common-sense Americans. And blessedly, there are more common-sense Americans than there are special interests, even if it doesn’t always seem that way. Good luck to the gun lobbyist or Hollywood lawyer who tries to blunt the righteous anger of ten million parents by hiding behind a twisted reading of our Bill of Rights.”
Joe, while it is refreshing to hear that you have finally decided to be courageous and speak up about common sense, how far are you willing to go? Are you courageous enough to repudiate all Republican politicians who have ignored this common sense and have even tried to reverse it, convincing their Republican voters that the opposite of common sense was true?
Even though most people will consider me “a” liberal, even over my objections- I am neither “a” liberal nor “a” conservative- I fully agree with you about Hollywood. From the time she was around 2 until 8 years old, my daughter would go running from the room if we were watching a harmless tv show as early as dinner time and a commercial would appear promoting a new movie with fangs and claws and maybe even guts suddenly jutting forward to a loud screeching sound, scaring my daughter out of the room. To this day, at 12, she still hides her eyes. How dare you scare my daughter, Hollywood. How dare you. How dare you make it cool to young boys and adolescents- blood, spewing guts, decapitations and the rest! How dare you.
But let’s stick to guns, Joe, how much courage do you have? You’re right, the NRA and politicians are going to muddy the issue. Don’t let them, Joe. Don’t let them.