I couldn’t say this any better than she has. The comments are from an excellent rant by Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D Minnesota) from her email to me (also visible on her web site but in a sidebar with no permalink). Her title is “This is intolerable” and I couldn’t agree more.
Yesterday’s massacre in San Bernardino, CA was the 355th mass shooting in the U.S. this year in which there were 4 or more victims. Over the past decade, 280,000 Americans have died due to gun violence.
This, by the way, is more deaths than we incurred in Iraq.
Gun violence in America has now become such a common, everyday occurrence that we know there will be another “breaking news” report of a shooting. We can only hope it is not our town, neighborhood, or family that is victimized.
This is intolerable. I am done with the “politically correct” talk about “common sense” gun safety measures. It is time for the American people who value their safety from gun violence more than gun rights to stand up and say: “enough!”
This Republican Congress is controlled by the NRA and they are only interested in protecting guns, not our families and communities. Innocent Americans will continue to be murdered in schools, churches and at work unless policy makers acknowledge the proliferation of guns is directly responsible for this epidemic of death and violence.
Nice to see this spelled out so clearly.
We need a comprehensive public safety and public health approach to guns in America. Every legal firearm should be required to be registered and insured for liability. Ammunition sales should be regulated and limited. And, possessing or owning a firearm should require safety training and a license following a background check.
How is the public safer when there are more regulations imposed on a person owning and driving an automobile than on an individual who owns an arsenal of guns?
It is time to make America safe for all our families!
If you are a gun rights absolutist, you may comment that we need guns to protect us from the government. If you think your arsenal will be of any use against a government that has drones, rocket launchers, and tanks, you’re a moron and you’ve wasted a shitload of money.
I’d also ask you if you think 5-year-olds should be allowed to own shoulder-fired rocket launchers and fully automatic assault rifles. If you say no, then you (like me) believe in gun control. The only question is how much of it is appropriate. I’d say the amount we have now is not nearly enough.