It
has been 243 days since Newtown. In that time, 7,199 people have been killed by
gunshot. That isn’t just the number who have been shot, it is the number that
have been shot and killed. It works out to 30 (29.6) people per day. Per day!
At that rate, my school could be wiped out in just under 10 days. And the NRA
sees nothing alarming about that. They, in fact, want to make more guns
available, make more “concealed carry” laws, make it mandatory for every place
to allow guns in their place of business. The NRA, as I have said before, is a
domestic terrorist group.
I started reading the NYTimes Joe Nocera blog, with his Gun Tracker column months ago. I was overwhelmed by the sheer number of gun-involved crimes listed there. By how widespread they were ~ there are very few states that haven't appeared in that column. And surprised to see how few of these incidents were either drugs or gangs related. And horrified by the number of children, 14 and under, who were shot and/or killed, often by another child, often under the noses of adults. (and positively incensed that all too often, the parents who left a loaded gun available to their children are not legally held responsible. Yes, I know that the loss of a child is a horrible event, but that isn't any kind of excuse for not holding that negligent parent responsible.)
More than 7,000 people have died since last December, by gun. Thousands more have been wounded, had their lives destroyed by a bullit. Handguns have no place in the home. I don't want to take rifles and shotguns away from farmers and ranchers, or hunters. I want handgun ownership severely limited. I don't care what the NRA says (we do not negociate with terrorists, remember?)
If guns were banned, there would be no drive-by shootings. Children wouldn't be able to pick up a gun carelessly left in the open and shoot themselves, their siblings, or their friends. Women would be safer from spousal abuse, and some men, too. (Women are the majority of who gets abused, and so shot, but some men are on the receiving end of that as well.)
If America was to begin teaching common sense about guns, and not this hysterical, "my constitutional right" nonsense, eventually, anyone being shot and killed would be a rare event. As it should be.
