Saturday, December 5, 2015

THE NY TIMES GOT IT RIGHT

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/05/opinion/end-the-gun-epidemic-in-america.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-top-region&region=opinion-c-col-top-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-top-region&_r=0

"Opponents of gun control are saying, as they do after every killing, that no law can unfailingly forestall a specific criminal. That is true. They are talking, many with sincerity, about the constitutional challenges to effective gun regulation. Those challenges exist. They point out that determined killers obtained weapons illegally in places like France, England and Norway that have strict gun laws. Yes, they did.
But at least those countries are trying. The United States is not. Worse, politicians abet would-be killers by creating gun markets for them, and voters allow those politicians to keep their jobs. It is past time to stop talking about halting the spread of firearms, and instead to reduce their number drastically — eliminating some large categories of weapons and ammunition."
 
Click on the link and read the editorial in its entirety. It isn't long, but it is powerful. It represents editorial journalism at its best...the kind I wish I were capable of. Bravo, N.Y. Times for getting it right.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

CAN YOU WAIT UNTIL THE BODIES GO COLD IN SAN BERNARDINO?

Another mass shooting, another opportunity. Another opportunity for the social media to assault our eyes with an endless stream of posts regaling us with their political views.
YOU NEED TO STOP...FOR A MINUTE.
Would it be so bad to agree on a 72 hour moratorium on the endless stream of political blather and allow us to reflect and grieve?
Would it be OK if you waited a few days before you see another mass shooting tragedy as an opportunity to publish your opinions on guns?
Would it be all right if you waited a few days before you danced on the victims graves waving your political banners?
Could I, as a human being, be allowed to reflect and grieve and be numb with emotion over another tragedy in what was once a proud nation?
Because, I don't know if you heartless bastards noticed...but people died yesterday. Fourteen of them, including two peace officers. Heroes all. And for every death there is twenty to thirty people at minimum who are grieving their losses...families trying to cope in stunned horror as their lives were inexcusably changed for the worse. Children longing for their parent. Spouses trying to cope with the loss of their life partners.
Because, I don't know if you heartless bastards noticed...but people died yesterday.
And so would it be OK if you resisted the opportunity to express your political blather until the bodies cooled?
There were 355 instances of mass shootings in this country this year alone. Didn't you get your point across immediately after the first 354?

Could you find it in your cold, unfeeling heart of hearts and first and foremost realized that the important thing about yesterday is that innocent lives were lost....before you published your continuous stream of crap about how you...own guns, want to keep your guns, want to control guns, want to hug your guns, want to outlaw guns, want to remind us that the guns didn't trigger themselves or how everyone should have one strapped to their waists along with their cell phones?

You think the perpetrators are cold? Look into the mirror and stop. Just stop.