Another mass shooting, a new record for American dead and wounded victims. More hearts and prayers extended to their families and friends by the gun law-opposing republican accomplices and other politicians, along with their usual, “This isn’t the time to talk about it,” demurrers and stalling.
And the eternal big question: “Why did he do it, what was his motivation?” The news media spend endless hours contemplating every shred of evidence, like scientists examining animal stools, searching for some rational explanation for the irrational, as if finding an answer will make us safer, or at least less horrified until the next time.
The real reason it happened was because the shooter COULD do it, the same as at Columbine, and Aurora, and Sandy Hook, and all the other mass shooting slaughters. Because ALL THESE KILLERS HAD ACCESS TO SEMI-AUTOMATIC (AND IN THIS CASE AUTOMATIC) WEAPONS AND AMMO CLIPS. It doesn't matter what their psychological diagnosis was, or background, or any other factors. The ONLY RELEVANT COMMON DENOMINATOR IS THAT THEY ALL USED THESE WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION. Not so difficult to figure out.
It isn’t enough to just pass “sensible" background check laws, or to ban semi-automatic guns and extended ammo clips. THEIR VERY POSSESSION MUST BE CRIMINALIZED, WITH SOMETHING LIKE A MINIMUM MANDATORY FIVE-YEAR FEDERAL PRISON TERM AND $50,000.00 FINE FOR MERELY HAVING ONE OF THESE WEAPONS. We don’t need door-to-door checks or a national registry— but if you can’t legally buy them, and you’re found with any of these monstrosities, you’re going to the slammer. And they will be pried from your cold dead hands if that’s what you prefer, rather than enduring any more innocent dead or maimed victims.
The Second Amendment of which they are so fond, but don’t really understand, guarantees "the right to bear arms." But which arms? Not nuclear weapons. Not stinger missiles, or RPGs. Not cannon, mortars, artillery, or explosives and bombs. Criminal lines are drawn through all of those. And it’s way past time to draw a few more lines on the list of prohibited deadly arms.
This nation has been held hostage for decades by the terrorist organization called the N.R.A., backed by the gun manufacturers who value their profits over human life, and responsible for many more deaths than ISIS. It’s way past time to end their stranglehold on corrupt politicians and the country. Otherwise, nothing will change and the mass shootings will continue, the same ritual repeating itself over and over, unless enough people finally rise up with tens of thousands in the streets, on phones and social media demanding to make change happen. If insanity is doing the same thing over and over again without a different outcome, then who are really the crazy ones? Not just the shooters.