That was a headline yesterday or the day before on politico.com.
The full headline was:
Politicians: Nothing to be done
The editor was summing up what elected officials were saying about the Colorado massacre.
"What can we do about these regularly occurring mass murders in our country, Senator, Congresswoman, Governor, your Honor?"
"Well...it's a tragedy, naturally, a lunatic just went out there and...you know...what can we do about lunatics, a madman, really, just a madman and...uh...nothing to be done. My heart goes out to the families and...yeah."
You know what you call a lunatic without access to military-grade weaponry?
You call him Skippy, if that's his name. Or Jim or Tyler or whatever and you wave at him and walk on by.
I live in Rat City, so I've got some experience with lunatics. And sometimes you can tell they're fighting some serious invisible shit and might confuse you with a part of it and so you walk a little quicker and keep a distance. But usually you can just walk on by.
Friends, left and right, libertarian, Tea Party, apathetic, surely we can agree that the Founders didn't have some kid buying a handgun because it was cool and he could in mind when they were talking about a well-regulated militia.
Right?
And who's the madman, actually?
The dude who finally snaps or the guy who shakes his head sadly at the death count and doesn't try to stop the next one or the next one or the next one.
A friend of mine said on Saturday
"Man, awful. But it was about time, wasn't it? Hadn't happened in awhile."
And I knew what he meant.
So, we're cool with this?
Part of the risk in this country when you go to a movie or a mall or to school in the morning is that somebody might stroll in and kill you and ten other strangers in a matter of seconds?
Yeah?
We're cool with this?
Simple answer. The technology exists to have fingerprint recognition on gun triggers. Actually not that expensive (kinda like airbags in cars). Of course the NRA hates the idea, because then gun owners would all have their fingerprints out there.
ReplyDeleteI was kind of thinking fewer assault rifles and handguns out there in general.
ReplyDeleteBut then again, I'm a Trotskyite extremist who hates America and Americans, so you got to consider the source.
Not only are some people cool with this, the entire massacre is being used as justification for arming everyone. Have you heard that yet? It is an argument that makes me particularly stabby when you consider that the shooter came in wearing all black body armor, and deployed gas canisters. So even if the theater *had* been packed with a special "George Zimmerman Night" audience of highly agitated gun toting testosterone bombs with something to prove...we would only be burying more people, and blaming anything and everything but the guns. I can't imagine what it must have been like for the people who were there, who paid to see fake violence stylized on a screen and suddenly...life broke out.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's the old reductio ad absurdum road.
ReplyDeleteAs long as you start with the premise that handguns, assault rifles and any type of weaponry expressly made for shooting people should be readily available to any U.S. citizen, then you've taken the first step and Logic shoves you along.
Criminals have guns.
I must have a gun to defend myself.
Criminals have bigger guns.
I must get myself a bigger gun.
I now have a big gun, because of all the armed criminals.
That guy there might be a criminal, after all, they're everywhere, armed with big guns, which is why I am walking around out here with a big gun.
That guy is coming towards me! That guy looks like a criminal! Thank god I've got my big gun!
And boom boom boom.
It's the old saw: for a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail.