![[small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg]](https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_WGczmWu7Wwc/SdCJyy2LN1I/AAAAAAAABWE/ABYCkbJaKaQ/s1600/small-web-version_harperfree_poster.jpg)
Yesterday, yet another school shooting. This time, an elementary school in Connecticut where 20 children and 6 adults were shot dead by an AK 47 no less. The gun apparently belonged to his mother, whom he also shot and killed. He turned the gun on himself .
A first grade teacher, 27 year old Victoria Soto must also be remembered for her last act of child care.
“This is Victoria Soto, and although I didn’t know her, she is my hero. I don’t know too much about her, but I know a lot of people who do know her and she’s ama…zing. Victoria was a Stratford high graduate and only 27. She was killed today after she hid her first graders in closets and cabinets and told the shooter they were in the gym. He killed her and not one of her children were harmed. I have never been more proud to be from Stratford or to be a teacher. God bless Victoria, her family and friends, and all of those who were involved today in anyway. Victoria is a true hero.”
How could this have happened? Or should we be surprised with the gun nut religion known as the NRA and other such gun lobbyists. It’s no secret that the US has had the most school shootings.
President Obama gives a luke warm speech where he even got teary eyed at times. He called for ‘meaningful action’, but of course, he stopped short of what that ‘meaningful action’ would be. Nothing new here, he will never try anything bold. Not even now, that he is a lame duck president. He won his second term and can’t run again in 2016. This would’ve been a time to do some big things, like perhaps a tweaking of the 2nd amendment. The lack of gun control is appalling. And they call themselves civilized.
The gun nutz are out scrambling, working feverishly on their propoganda machine. Yes, they are proving to me more concerned over keeping their precious weapons than they are about the latest victims and their families from Sandy Hook Elementary school as well as other victims of gun violence. The simple fact is that if the gun man didn’t have access to guns, those victims at Sandy Hook would still be alive. The White House is basically saying that “today is not the day to discuss gun control”. Whell, when the hell is it?
Prevention is Key
I know I’m bringing an obvious example here, but around the same time the Sandy Hook shooting took place, Another madman in China went on a stabbing spree at a school where 22 children and 1 adult were injured. Tragic, yes. However, if that madman had a gun instead of a knife, I’m sure we’d be looking at far more casualties.
Hell, even David Frum, a Republican and Con cheerleader much of the time is calling for stronger gun control.
A permissive gun regime is not the only reason that the United States suffers so many atrocities like the one in Connecticut. An inadequate mental health system is surely at least as important a part of the answer, as are half a dozen other factors arising from some of the deepest wellsprings of American culture.
Of course more needs to be done to address violence of all kinds, but stricter gun control would be a great start toward prevention. Prevention, something our beloved Harpercons and their cheerleaders don’t understand. Scary when you think about it. Something these wingnuts fail to understand, tougher sentences will not bring back those victims. It will not undo the injuries — physical and emotional — many of these victims suffer. Prevention means preventing these kinds of tragedies.
Let the numbers speak for themselves:
It is obvious that more lax gun control laws add up to more violence.
More also needs to be done about addressing mental illness. Some action is needed. The trouble is that more are in denial over the existance of mental illness and therefore ignore its’ prevalence. In many of these mass shooting events, one thing was obvious about these perpetrators — they’re not exactly the poster children for good mental health.
Meanwhile in Canada, The Race to the Bottom Continues…
Yep, you guessed it, here in Canada, ol’ Vicky Toews is contemplating making the gun lobby crazies happy.
As Star writer Tonda MacCharles reported on Wednesday, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is mulling a sweeping set of proposals from the pro-gun camp that would further water down federal controls. In future, gun owners’ licences would run for 10 years or longer without renewal, up from five now. Paperwork now required to transport weapons would be waived. And certain prohibited firearms — ranging from small, easily concealed handguns to full-bore assault weapons—would be reclassified as restricted, making them easier to sell or transfer.
The changes have been urged by the Canadian Firearms Advisory Committee, a panel recruited by Toews’ office. It is led by two firearms experts and dealers, and is thick with gun advocates.
This really shouldn’t come as a surprise of course. Those Harpercons would love nothing more than to placate their gun nut lobbyists who appear to have bottomless pockets.
A Punishment from Gawd
Most of those socons like ol’ Vicky are probably thinking that we should start praying more as a solution to the problem of gun violence. Don’t laugh, there is at least one nut in the US of A who actually believes that Gawd is punishing those victims at Sandy Hooks Elementary. Read and weep, boys ‘n’ girls:
On his radio program on American Family Radio, Brian Fischer blamed the lack of prayer in public schools for the tragic shooting of 20 children and six adults at an elementary school in Connecticut (another person was killed at a separate crime scene).
“You know the question’s gonna come up, where was God?” he said. “I thought God cared about the little children, God protected the little children. Where was God when all this went down? And here’s the bottom line: God is not gonna go where he’s not wanted. Now we have spent, since 1962, this, we’re 50 years into this now, we have spent 50 years telling God to get lost. Telling God, we do not want you in our schools, we don’t want to pray to you in our schools, we don’t want to pray to you before football games, we don’t want to pray to you at graduation, we don’t want anyone talking about you in a graduation speech.”
“We’ve kicked God out of our public school system,” he went on. “And I think God would say to us, ‘Hey I’ll be glad to protect your children, but you’ve gotta invite me back into your world first. I’m not gonna go where I’m not wanted. I am a gentleman.’”
More here.
More Stupidity
Meanwhile, there are those who believe that more should be able to get guns. Hell, the GOP in Michigan is now pushing for it to be permissible for folks to pack guns in school.
Hours after the terrible shooting in a Newtown, Connecticut elementary school, the Michigan House Republicans issued demanded that Governor Rick Snyder (R) sign a bill that would make it easier for people to receive a gun permit and open up “gun free zones,” including schools. A statement attributed to Press Secretary Ari B. Adler shrugged off any link between guns in schools and school shootings:
Turning schools into the OK corral will really work out well. Hell, why stop there? As David Frum tweeted:
Shooting at CT elementary school. Obviously, we need to lower the age limit for concealed carry so toddlers can defend themselves
Yeah, real intelligent. Why not add target shooting to school curriculums?
Knowing ol’ Gov Ricky Snyder, he probably will sign that one as fast as he did that anti-labour law.
60 years ago and more. We always had rifles and a shotgun on the farm. Those were days when you had to hunt wild game, to feed the family. I don’t ever remember a time, we heard guns were used to murder, on the Canadian prairies. They did not kill any wildlife for fun nor for target practice, just for the sake of killing. That was forbidden.
I can’t even imagine the grief of the parents who lost their children. The adults who gave their lives, to save the children. Perhaps they were parents too. They deserve medals of the highest recognition.
They say gun smuggling in the U.S. is rampant. Your honest citizens will register their guns. Criminals will not. They always have more fire power, than the police.
In private homes, keeping guns out of the hands of kids, is a real problem. As a parent, I wouldn’t permit any guns. I am deathly afraid of them.
I doubt they will ever be able to prevent guns, in the wrong hands. They will have to guard the schools. There are War Veterans, who could do the job. Can you imagine how terrified those kids will be, when they have to go back to that school?