All of the same old, tired arguments get dragged out of the closet after every mass shooting:
Calls for restrictions on semi-automatic rifles. (Chryon on CNN this morning: "Shooter did NOT have AR-15.")
Calls for restricting magazine capacities.
Calls for increasing funding for mental health screenings.
Calls for "enforcing the laws already on the books."
Calls for Congress to "act" (whatever the hell that means).
Declarations on the sanctity of the Second Amendment with the inane phrase "freedoms and liberties" thrown in for good measure.
And on and on...
The gun makers and the NRA are happy to hear and even promote these discussions.They'll talk about any and all of these, ad infinitum, as a way to keep everyone preoccupied and distracted with niggling policy details and meaningless, broad-brush constitutional discussions that they know eventually peter out and die.
They don't want to talk about the real issue. Because the real issue would cut into their bottom lines.
See, the real issue is how easy it is to get a gun in this country. We are absolutely flooded with guns with a per capita rate that dwarfs every other developed nation on the planet. In fact, the number of guns per capita in the U.S. is more than double -- and, in most cases, triple or quadruple -- nearly all nations, developed or not.
The gun makers (with language repeated by their mouthpieces at the NRA, in Congress and even here at Daily Kos, whether knowingly or unknowingly) don't give a rat's ass who gets a gun as long as they get a sale.
The Navy Yard shooter may have been insane, but so is our gun policy. People in the rest of the civilized world look at us and wonder just what in the hell we're thinking.
The same old arguments you hear today after this latest horrific mass shooting are music to the ears of gun maker executives. They know that all of this talk will end up in a dead end, and that their raging torrent of gun sales -- and profits -- will continue, unabated.
When interest in hunting began to decline in the `70s as rural populations shifted to urban centers, the gun makers smoothly transitioned their primary marketing efforts from guns-as-sport to guns-as-personal-protection. The emphasis switched from shotguns and hunting rifles to handguns. And the gun makers, the NRA and their political allies began pushing concealed carry and open carry laws all across the country to align with their new marketing push promoting guns as a necessary tool for self-defense.
And here we are today... Flooded with handguns, overwhelmed with them, really, most of them far more lethal than their old single-shot counterparts.
That's what's insane in this country. Just how easy it is to get a handgun. Or three.
Let's dispense with the side arguments and focus on making it much, much harder to get a gun, particularly a handgun, in this country. We have to slow the flow of weapons into our nation's (literal) bloodstream. We have to start somewhere and we have to start now.
[UPDATE]
It has been pointed out by willrob in the comments that authorities are now reporting that the shooter did have an AR-15. As I note below, I think gun makers are fine with having yet another discussion about semi-auto rifles because they know it distracts from the fact that they pushing more and more guns into the marketplace. If anything, discussion about semi-auto rifles boosts sales.
It's a win-win for gun makers.
[NOTE: As of 1:30 EST, the police are now saying he did NOT have an AR-15. Discussion of weaponry is just a sidetrack, regardless.]
[UPDATE 2]
Here are the questions I would like to see discussed openly and publicly in order to help citizens more thoroughly understand just how insanely easy it is to get a gun in this country:
Do we really need .94 guns per capita in this country compared to countries like Canada (.31), France (.31), Germany (.30), New Zealand (.23), Australia (.15), Mexico (.15), Denmark (.12), Ireland (.09), Israel (.07) or England (.06)?
What are the consequences of living in a society literally flooded with guns?
Why should it be so easy to get a gun, particularly a handgun, in this country?
Is the fact that it so easy to get a gun a sane policy for our society?