ORMOND BEACH -- America’s collective heart has been broken again. A lunatic with a gun, and in this case several weapons, killed innocent people for no apparent reason. Three men died for their heroic acts in saving their girlfriends at the theater in Aurora, Colo., where “The Dark Knight Rises” was showing.
In all, 12 people lost their lives to senseless violence. Eleven of the 70 injured are still in critical condition. My first thought and prayer was for all their families and friends, lives changed forever. It is impossible to understand this. Incredibly, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg jumped on the tragedy by “condemning Tea Party Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) for suggesting on Friday that the Colorado theater massacre could have been prevented if moviegoers had been armed.” http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2012/07/21/560791/mayor-bloomberg-sla…
Guns, like cars, are inanimate objects. Yet drunks driving cars kill thousands each year and no one calls for all cars to be impounded. You can take a class, take a test and receive a driver’s license in one day. It’s not quite that easy to obtain a concealed carry permit. You take a class to learn how to handle a gun, take a test, go to the range and show your (certified) instructor you understand safety issues, have your fingerprints taken and a background check completed and then you get your license.
There have been varios media reports indicating the gunman in the Colorado theater rampage displayed behavior that a gun range owner thought was "bizarre." The AP reports, he ostensibly prepared for this slaughter for at least a few months. He was receiving packages and had been shopping around gun stores in his area.
Could he have been stopped? I do have to wonder how many registered gun owners commit violent crimes with their weapons.
Gun Owners of America reports: “Guns are used 2.5 million times a year in self-defense. Law-abiding citizens use guns to defend themselves against criminals as many as 2.5 million times every year—or about 6,850 times a day. This means that each year, firearms are used more than 80 times more often to protect the lives of honest citizens than to take lives.”
GOA further states that “the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that the Brady registration law has failed to reduce murder rates. In August 2000, JAMA reported that states implementing waiting periods and background checks did "not [experience] reductions in homicide rates or overall suicide rates.”
The 2nd Amendment was written by our founding fathers for a reason: So that no American would ever fear their government. It’s short and clear: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”
You might recall the New Orleans police going door to door confiscating lawfully registered guns from their owners after Hurricane Katrina. Do you think they found all the illegal guns that were in the hands of criminals, too? The governor made them stop, but the guns were never returned to their owners. The only way to stop gun violence is to make the punishment fit the criminal. Not the second or third time; the first time.
Allowing people to drive while drunk is unacceptable. But in neither case is the inanimate object to blame. A person picked up that gun or started that car. They alone should be condemned.