GUN LOVE

Here we go again, thirteen more victims of a deranged killer with a gun. I don’t care anymore! Why should any of us care? It seems to be a popular American past time, like football or NASCAR.  Why all the righteous and fevered outrage every single time this happens? We never do a thing about it, every single time! The only effect these mass murders seem to have is gun sales go up after these all too common events because gun “enthusiasts” are terrified the government is going to confiscate their guns. That will never ever happen. Never. 

 The NRA and the gun manufacturers lie to their followers about the threat by the U.S. government to their second amendment rights to own and bear firearms. Their only solution to gun death is more guns. Mass murder with guns is good for business. After Sandy Hook and twenty babies being literally shot into pieces, gun sales went through the roof. What a testimony to America, mom, apple pie and democracy.

I really can’t afford to care anymore. I can’t keep investing my emotional capital into this black hole of the black heart of America. It is literally making me sick. Congress, you disgust me. This self induced impotency of government is indicative of so much that has gone wrong with us. From main streaming mental patients and closing government run mental institutions to “save money” to the NRA going from a gun safety and hunting education organization to one of the largest most powerful lobbying groups for gun manufacturers to promote gun sales.

We have literally sold our souls to the devil in the form of repeatedly electing him to office. Nothing is ever going to change if we don’t. So I already don’t care about the next mass murder. I just hope it’s not you or me or our children, but it will happen again and again and again.

I wrote this back in September after the Washington DC Shipyard shooting spree where thirteen people were gunned down by yet another deranged psycho killer. As we mark the one year anniversary of the Newtown Connecticut massacre of 20 babies and six of their teachers last December 14^th, absolutely nothing has been done to rein in America’s mentally ill obsession with guns, nor do I expect anything to change. Our law makers are still in bed with the gun manufactures and until the money train from the gun lobby to our “representatives” is cut off, it will be gun business as usual.

As most of us struggle to process each brutal mass murder by gun violence, we are overwhelmed and our senses dulled by their frequency. We begin to accept them as normal and the price we pay for our second amendment and freedom. All sensible, logical attempts to lessen the madness — such as treating guns as we do cars, with registration, license and insurance — are met with blitherings of slippery slopes and imaginary government thugs carting away our weapons.

A revolting statistic has recently come to light that 1.4 million Americans have died by guns since 1970. That is more than died in all U.S. wars combined since the country’s founding over two hundred years ago, a figure of 1.2 million people. The 1.4 million figure includes suicides, murders and “legal” gun deaths. I’ll repeat that; that is more deaths in the last 44 years by guns than all our wars combined in more than 238 years of the existence of our Republic. According to Slate, “using the most recent CDC estimates for yearly deaths by guns in the US, it is likely that as of today, 12/16/2013, roughly 33,572 people have died from guns in the US just since the Newtown shootings.”

The false reasoning of second amendment purists to “protect the right to bear arms” has been exposed in the form of the protection of the latest killing technology, plastic guns that are undetectable by security scanners. The sole purpose of these weapons is to avoid law enforcement detection and secrete a handgun into an environment heretofore safe from murderous intent. Plastic handguns are made for murder and nothing else, yet again, our lawmakers are more interested in campaign contributions and their NRA rating than protecting the people they are supposed to represent.

Recently the House approved a ten-year extension of a law that requires all guns to be detectable by metal screening machines. Great, right? Wrong. They have added an absurd loophole:”Though it mandates that all guns include at least one metal part detectable by screeners at airports, government buildings and schools, the part may be removable and not necessarily be required for successful operation of the weapon.” That is a loophole you could drive a truck full of C-4 through!

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) tried to pass legislation requiring these plastic killing tools have at least one irremovable metal part, but was unsuccessful. The House passed the bill with the loophole intact and it is sitting on President Obama’s desk where he probably will sign it. This “law” is a very bad joke. Prepare to be outraged once again. I will close by repeating what I wrote earlier this year.

I really can’t afford to care anymore. I can’t keep investing my emotional capital into this black hole of the black heart of America. It is literally making me sick. Congress, you disgust me.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/feb/14/doonesbury/doonesbury-strip-says-270000-americans-have-been-k/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/crime/2012/12/gun_death_tally_every_american_gun_death_since_newtown_sandy_hook_shooting.html

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/despite-congressional-ban-3-d-printed-guns-still-have-future-2D11718212