Listening to the hours and hours and reams and reams of media coverage about the Batman shootings is just infuriating. I've written about this before, but it never ceases to amaze me how America just doesn't seem to get it. Hardly anyone seems to ask "isn't there something that can be done about this?" Instead they just wollow in the intenstines of the latest psycho's decent into carnage.
An analogy occurred to me where it feels like one of those cliched scenes where a serial victim of domestic violence throws herself on the sympathies of her friends and family, but over time their sympathies reduce and reduce as the obvious answer to her situation continues to inexplicaby allude her. "Why don't you just leave him?" they ask in disbelief. "I can't", she answers, "I just can't".
How many people need to die before someone asks the questions, "why don't we just make guns illegal?"
Jamie Holmes seems nothing more than a confused and lonely kid whose dreams were shattered - something that happens to almost everyone at some stage in their lives. But instead of the usual break-down and at the very worst a case of limited domestic violence that leads to some degree of commital; this kid is able to - over the course of just two months - accumulate the most frightening arsenal of the sort a small resistance army would envy. Four guns including an assualt rifle and a shot gun and 6,000 - SIX THOUSAND - rounds of amunition were sold to him by what seems like the same retailer with no questions asked. Apparently this kid even got a briefing on how to use these weapons. Somewhere along the line he was also able to boobytrap his appartment with a scary array of chemical devices and - get this - mortar rounds!
Then he was able to go out and kill 12 innocent, film lovers including a six year old child, and wound scores of others while shattering the cinema-going inocence of the world.
Who are these people that insist on the right to bare arms? Why is this arbitary right more important than the peace and harmony of millions of ordinary people? Why do polititians appease this ridiculously dangerous biggotry?
Furthermore, why does the right to bare arms for some trump the right of many more to "the right to the pursuit of happiness" which is apparently the very bedrock of the constitution. Wasn't the former an ammendment to the latter?
I just don't understand. I really don't. It's like the frustrated friends and family asking over and over, "why don't you just leave him?"
But even if America continues to indulge this stupid minority, at least bring in some controls for crying out loud. Bring in psychological profiles of assualt-rifle-buyers. Require parental escort until the age of 25. Flag the rapid accumulation of weopons to the police for investigation. Take some bloody responsibilty because I am so fed up with sitting through these miserable stories of the tragic innocent victims of these easily avoidable horror-scenes.
President Obama - if you win in November, will you try? Please try. This stuff has got to become a thing of the past.