WASHINGTON (AP) — The question surfaces each time a mass murder unfolds: Will this one change the political calculus in Washington against tougher gun control?
The answer, after the Virginia Tech killings, the attempted assassination of Gabby Giffords, the Colorado movie-theater attack, the Wisconsin Sikh temple shootings, and more: No.
Comments
I cannot carry 4 ounces of shampoo onto a commercial aircraft, but I can carry semi-automatic weapons into a crowded shopping mall. Why? Because the first is considered inherently dangerous and the second is considered a constitutionally protected freedom. There are many natural- and common-law-freedoms, including others enumerated in our federal constitution. All freedoms, though, are limited. They must bend towards restraint if in their exercise they infringe on another's freedoms. The right to bear arms that can annihilate 20 children in a matter of minutes is not a freedom. It is no more than a right to tyrrany to the victims. This right must be relinquished or curtailed in a civilized society. If it isn't, then all we need to do, in fairness to unknowing visitors, is change the sign on our door: United States of the Uncivilized.
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It is time to end the madness. Ours is the most violent country in the industrialized world, with more guns than people and more guns than the next 25 nations combined. You can buy a gun on the internet or gun show--with no background check. Why? You can buy automatic weapons and cartridges designed for warfare at gun shows. Why should that be acceptable?
It is time to take on the gun lobby and mount aggressive efforts to vote out legislators stupid enough to support its agenda. This madness has to stop. Just as the NRA targets individual legislators with threats of defeat, so must there be organized citizen efforts to defeat legislators that cower before the NRA.