As a week long nightmare that began with an Act of Cowardism
[Terror] comes to an end, there are many in America eagerly awaiting answers as to "Why" two brothers, who's family immigrated to the US from Chechnya in 2003 under Political Asylum status would turn against, and try to harm the country that took them in?
I, on the other hand, am more interested, or better yet angry, that such senseless violence was allowed to occur in the first place.
The detonation of two homemade bombs along the final one mile stretch of the 2013 Boston Marathon that claimed the lives of three, and wounded nearly 200 others, were allegedly perpetrated by Tamerlan Tsarnaev (26), and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (19).
Could a background check have kept the Tsarnaev Brothers from obtaining guns and bomb making materials?
Maybe....maybe not.
It's been just under five months since a lone gunman took 26 innocent lives in cold blood at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut on December 14, 2012.
Although the firearms he possessed were legally purchased, questions regarding the perpetrators motives and state of mind, along with the ease of access to high powered rifle and ammunition clips, came into question.
Since then a nation wide discussion has evolved regarding the need for stricter background checks for all Americans, and I stress the word Americans.
Almost immediately following the massacre there was an outcry from nearly every common sense thinking person in the country for common sense legislation that would deter, if not prevent further senseless loss of life.
Unfortunately almost every member of the G.O.P. along with a handful of Democrats have had our country in a political arm-bar over the issue of Universal Background Checks, a measure that would monitor the sale of firearms and ammunition to known criminals, religious extemists and the mentally ill.
Most civic-minded individuals believe background checks will help to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of individuals who may seek to cause harm.
Hindsight is always 20/20 and I am sure there are those who would argue that Background Checks are ineffective at preventing criminal behavior. However, my common sense logic leads me to believe it would have made a huge difference in how the Boston Bombing came to fruition and how other events evolved during the days to follow.
For argument’s sake let's say that the stockpiling of firearms and bomb making materials by immigrants, one of which had recently been interviewed by the FBI for possible radical religious ties, still managed not to raise any flags, or cause the brothers to be added to a national "Do Not Sell" list, thus thwarting any criminal intent, I am confident that Law Enforcement Agencies, would have had a much easier time tracking down and apprehending them once the bombing had occurred, as they would have been on a hot list that the authorities could go straight to.
Instead Authorities had to start from scratch with leads so cold that by week's end they resorted to farming photos taken by the general public.
Tamerlan and Dzhokharwere were loose for five days, hiding in plain sight before blind luck started a chain of events that put authorities back on their trail again, but not before a firearm in the possession of Tsarnaev Brothers was used to claim yet another innocent life, MIT Campus Officer, Sean Collier.
According to TV New Magazine / Talk Show host Lawrence O'Donnel of MSNBC, a substance known as Taggants, is a chemical marker that could be added to Gunpowder for the purposes of tracking it's origins was successfully lobbied to be removed from the manufacturing processed by the National Rifle Association. Thus hindering Law enforcement's usual avenue of investigation when dealing with crimes involving explosives.
Ironically, it has been reported that the eldest Tsarnaev began linking to radical Islamic Extremist sites on You Tube in the recent months prior to his attack. He had also recently visited the Republic of Dagestan where he remained for over six months, where according to one news source he met with knowm Islamic Extremists several times. Tamerlan had also been interviewed by the FBI for suspicion of being involved with extremism after a 'heads up" came from the Russian Government.
However, the FBI cliamed that no actionable intelligence was available, and Tamerlan was allowed to continue his stay in America, apparently without any watchful eyes whatsoever. Had there been a "Do not sell" list in place at the time tamerlan was interviewed by the F.B.I. in 2011, perhaps his name could have been added as a precaution.
As an "ounce of prevention, is worth a pound of cure" kind of a person, I am outraged that any of this senseless violence occurred in the first place. For the past five years the G.O.P. has slowly, but surely stranglehold the recovery of our economy for political reasons, all to the detriment of our citizenry.
As of now, no one knows the motives of the Tsarnaev Brothers, but what we do know is that the Boys were not gainfully employed and were having problems in school.
Their Mother, who had once been arrested for shoplifting (ironically by the same department store that caught the brothers on surveillance tape), and the father, who had once made his living as a mechanic, both managed to return to their home land of in Chechnya.
Although the boys have two Uncles still living in the U.S., the relationship is claimed to be estranged, and a close connection to the incident has not been found, as of yet.
And so the question are abound....
Did the boys hit rock bottom?
Did they feel oppressed (economically) in some way?
Were they radicalized during a visit to their homeland of the Republic of Dagestan, or the Internet?
I am sure all of these questions will be answered in the coming days. However, in the mean time, I would like to know if every political leader that voted against the numerous Background check legislation in all of it’s many incarnations are prepared to foot the bill for all of the Federal dollars that will be needed for Multi-million Dollar Manhunts every time a confused citizen decides to carry out an Act of Cowardism, in lieu of taking simple steps, that costs little to no money to prevent them?
Or.....
Are the citizens of the United States ready to vote these political insurgents, who are in gross derelict of their duty to represent the constituents of their congressional district, out of office?
85% of all Americans across the board and party lines believe that Background Checks are fair and justified in our society.
I long for the day that we as a collective people who are sick and tired can find the collective fortitude to vote into office common sense Representatives that will help restore our Democracy to a time I fondly reminisce about...such as the wonder years of the pre-Reagan era.