And, in an ironic turn of phrase, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) , adds that massacres and mass killings are a fact of life. More like a fact of death but there you go.
JOHNSON: People will talk about unusually lethal weapons, that could be potentially a discussion you could have. But the fact of the matter is there are 30-round magazines that are just common. You simply can’t keep these weapons out of the hands of sick, demented individuals who want to do harm. And when you try to do it, you restrict our freedoms.
The Overton Window has shifted so far to the right that the opposite 'extreme' is a plea for a common sense restriction on assault weapons.
Johnson’s statement was in direct opposition to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who came on the program to call for a renewed assault weapons ban. “I believe people use these weapons because they can get them,” she said. “I believe that a revolver, a rifle, a hand gun isn’t going to do the damage. It’s the big clips, a hundred rounds. You can’t get to him to dislodge the gun because he can fire so rapidly and has so many bullets.”
The clip ends before he says it, but Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace ends the segment by asking if mass killings and massacres are a fact of life, and Johnson responds with a simple 'yes'. FNS puts up their video about 5pm. It's not embeddable from their website either but when they provide it I'll provide a link.
There's just nothing, nothing we can do about this. These events are as natural, and unpreventable as hurricanes and earthquakes. We can't prevent deaths and injuries from car accidents with seat belts, we can't prevent disease with vaccinations, we simply are powerless to do anything about our lives, we are victims of fate.
And, he goes on to fantasize, of course, that putting guns in the hands of responsible individuals could have prevented this tragedy. Naturally, ordinary individuals would have had armor piercing ammunition. And, who gets to decide who is a 'responsible' individual?
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) said he would oppose gun control efforts that could be used to “restrict our freedoms” and instead suggested arming “responsible” people to combat “sick, demented individuals who want to do harm.”
Since a creepy gun club application and buying 6,000 rounds of ammunition on the internet
is not a red flag to anyone, how are we supposed to sort out the responsible from the irresponsible?
The gun club where alleged shooter James Holmes applied for membership was found by the owner to be creepy enough to warn his employees about Holmes. But that information can't be complied into a database, because there isn't one. The government can make millions of requests from cellphone providers to surveil us but can't keep track of someone purchasing over 6,000 rounds of ammunition, to shoot deer.
Less than a month before carrying out the midnight movie massacre that left 12 dead, suspected shooter James Holmes applied for membership at a private gun range, unnerving the club’s owner whose calls to Holmes’ apartment reached a “creepy, weird” Batman-inspired voicemail message.
“His answering machine message was incoherent, just bizarre, really bizarre -- slurring words, but he didn’t sound drunk, just strange -- I could make out “James” somewhere in it,” Glenn Rotkovich, of the Lead Valley Range, in Byers, Colo., told FoxNews.com.
“I told my staff, here’s the name -- James Holmes -- this is the person. If he shows up come get me. I need to talk to him before anything else,” he added. “I said, I’m not sure about this guy.’ It was kind of bizarre.”
Holmes
purchased 6,000 rounds of ammunition over the internet in the last two months. But that isn't some kind of a red flag to federal authorities? Only if the purchaser were Muslim, perhaps.
One legislator is willing to step to the plate and start doing something about it.
The office of Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) told The Huffington Post on Friday that he would be making a renewed push for legislation that would ban high-capacity magazines.
Now there's a lone voice in the wilderness.