So this morning all of the media is talking about how could this happen? This is a country with a lot of dangerous people; be it because of mental illness, extremist ideologies, or simply pure hatred of a different person or group. Some of these ideas of hatred and fear are being pushed frequently in the media. Last night was a graphic example of what this could turn into. The thing I want to address is that it could have been much worse.
If you look back at the concert shooting that happened in Las Vegas the thing that made it such a ghastly event was the unfortunately high death count and number of people injured because the shooter had bump stocks on his rifles that vastly multiplied the number of bullets that maniac could rain down on the crowd in the short time the incident lasted. Last night could have been a repeat of such a scene and we’re lucky it wasn’t.
One thing we all knew in advance was it was possible because of policies pushed by the NRA, other lobbyists that work on behalf of gun and ammo manufacturers, pro-gun politicians, and because recent decisions by SCOTUS that have left such dangerous devices available to almost anyone in this country. We live in times of unrestrained insanity, where extremely dangerous people can get access to extremely destructive weaponry.
From the rate of fire in the videos I’ve seen I have guessed that the weapon used was likely a semi-automatic rifle. Had this been equipped with a bump stock TFG could have taken multiple bullets in the reaction time of the secret service (no fault of theirs, BTW), not to mention how much more collateral damage would have been done to the crowd behind him in the line of fire. Horrific.
And yet we live in a country where the laws and our courts deems it fit that such a possibility can exist. I believe it is in part due to the extremists on both ends of the scale that perpetuate this situation. Some of us believe that guns of any sort should be kept out of the hands of the general citizenry, while others believe that we should have an unrestricted right to own anything we can afford no matter how lethal it is. Ironically this week the first vending machine for ammunition has bees installed in San Antonio.
All I guess I’m really trying to say is we need to have a country that is not controlled by the extremes of either side so we can get to a point somewhere in the middle that will make us all safer. Reasonable people should be able to come up with reasonable solutions.
I don’t have the answer to where to draw the line, in fact, I don’t aspire to be the person that does. Hate to stir the pot and then leave it, but I have a friend who just had a foot amputated (damn diabetes) and a wife who is mobility impaired as well, so my time on here today will be limited to making this article and I won’t have time to respond to comments for some time. Apologies in advance, but I wanted to get my opinion out there now while this is so fresh on my mind.