Thursday, December 22, 2011

Thought for the Day

What kind of society protects its trees, small owls and insignificant minnows, but murders its children with impunity?

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Let's Use Some Common Sense

It's been a while since I listened closely enough to the news to have something really tick me off. However, with the senseless events of Saturday in Tucson, and what has followed in the media and political arena, there's a lot to irritate me.

When did we become a people who started pointing fingers at those we don't like before there are any facts available? When did we start assigning blame and guilt to those who disagree with us? I can't believe this is the United States!

Tonight, I heard the absolutely stupidest thing ever, and another thing right behind it, stepping on its heels. Not only are people building careers on rhetoric which closes the barn door after the horse has galloped off, but they are also suggesting things which make absolutely NO sense whatsoever!

I've heard any number of new laws proposed which would 'prevent this kind of thing' from happening. Hello? Is anyone out there paying attention? We HAVE laws! It is illegal, completely, to shoot another person in cold blood, let alone to shoot nineteen and kill six, no matter who they are! It doesn't matter who the victims are, or who the shooter is, or what problems he has, or what his beliefs are, it's a crime!

So, Republican Peter King's proposal that we pass a law making it a crime to carry a weapon within 1000 ft. of high level officials and judges is ridiculous! Raise your hand if you thing that law would have kept this mentally unstable young man at home on Saturday. Would he have said, "Oh, no, I can't go within a thousand feet of the congresswoman with a gun! Darn!" Not bloody likely.

The thing these people always miss is that a criminal doesn't CARE what the law says. The law is for the law abiding to have recourse AFTER a crime is committed. You and I aren't going to go shooting up politicians, no matter how much we dislike them, and no matter how many guns we own, or how big the magazines are, or how fast the trigger can be pulled. We wouldn't do it if there WEREN'T a law forbidding it.

So Ms McCarthy's proposed law to limit the size of the gun magazine is equally ridiculous. Do you think this shooter would have said, "How am I going to shoot 19 people when I can only have six cartridges in my magazine?" No, of course not! He would simply have taken the same gun he took and shot the same number of people.

And I was totally disgusted when she said that lawmakers who feel the need to arm themselves should perhaps think about another line of work (not an exact quote, but close). Good grief! Even a lawmaker is an American citizen and has the right to keep and bear arms and to defend him or herself against violence directed at them.

Let's take a look at Saturday from another point of view. What if the congresswoman and all of her aides had been armed on Saturday? What if they were all crack shots? How many people would be injured and dead today if they had been capable of defending themselves and the innocents around them? Would that darling little 9-year-old girl have gone home healthy with no more than emotional trauma? Something to think about.