It seems Mass killings are a 'made in America tragedy' in these times. It is almost reasonable to wonder whether you’re risking your life by being anywhere but at home.
A gunman with a clutch of high-powered rifles on the 32nd floor of a Las Vegas hotel proved Sunday night that you can assume no safety in numbers, not even among 22,000 fans of country music, a genre that romanticizes American gun culture. Some 59 people died and 527 more were injured in a long-distance rain of hellish gunfire in the nation’s worst mass shooting in modern times.
Not to say other countries are safe . Twenty-two died in May when the mostly young female fans of Ariana Grande, of Boca Raton, were met with a suicide bomber’s blast upon leaving a Manchester arena at the concert’s end.
Nor are schools sure havens as Virginia Tech discovered in 2007 when a student killed 32 people and wounded 17. Not a high school, as Columbine, Colo., showed in 1999, when two disaffected students killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher. Not even a grade school, as we sadly learned from Sandy Hook Elementary, in Newton, Conn., where a 20-year-old gunman killed 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7, and six adult staff members in 2012.
Nor are movie theaters, as we know from Aurora, Colo., where a gunman dressed in tactical clothing killed 12 and injured 70 at a 2012 midnight premiere showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Nor are nightclubs, as we saw last year at Pulse, the gay club in Orlando where a 29-year-old Florida man methodically killed 49 people and wounded 58 more.
Nor are sports events safe. The two bombs exploding at the 2013’s Boston Marathon proved that . Three people died and 16 lost limbs among hundreds of wounded.
It’s frightening. It’s enough to make a person never leave the house. That’s possible, certainly. You can curl up with Netflix rather than go out to the movies. Shop on Amazon and avoid the mall. Take courses online, not in the lecture hall.
But this would be the wrong response. To retreat would give evil a victory. Stephen Paddock and other mass killers are products of American society. We produced them, therefore, we should find them, root them out and prevent them from acting out their horrific fantasies. And we should make it impossible for them to get their hands on automatic weapons.
Before this era of mass shootings, American life was filled with plenty of other perils. Hundreds of people died in theater fires (492 at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston in 1942; 602 at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago in 1903). Boiler explosions, Steamship fires, cities burning down, all pretty common disasters. Mass disasters like these are largely things of the past. Why? Because people took steps to prevent them with better building standards, stricter fire codes, safer technologies.
Today, it’s different. No one is taking positive action. No one taking steps to change the status quo. The gun lobby’s hold on Congress — and the Trump White House — is so firm that the mere suggestion of sensible gun safety measures seems dead on arrival. The public seems to be giving up; last year, a mere 36 percent supported banning assault weapons, according to Gallup.
To the contrary, Congress is currently considering widening the use of silencers – exactly the wrong thing if you want to know from where a mass shooter is firing. And, predictably, we’re hearing from those who say the best answer is to encourage more people to carry firearms and shoot back — (although any fans’ handguns would have been useless against the long-distance barrage in Las Vegas.) People are told to pray, as if mass shootings were a natural disaster and not preventable.
Americans should not have to live in fear of pursuing the everyday pleasures and necessities of life. We cannot allow people with serious mental imbalances be allowed to build arsenals of weapons and ammunition which are designed for the military; designed to eliminate scores of enemies in a single round. Why not elect people to office who will take assault weapons — weapons of war that have no utility for hunting and no legitimate rationale for self-defense — out of circulation and out of our nightmares.
Our kids should feel safe on the streets and in school, not like potential victims.
Not to say other countries are safe . Twenty-two died in May when the mostly young female fans of Ariana Grande, of Boca Raton, were met with a suicide bomber’s blast upon leaving a Manchester arena at the concert’s end.
Nor are schools sure havens as Virginia Tech discovered in 2007 when a student killed 32 people and wounded 17. Not a high school, as Columbine, Colo., showed in 1999, when two disaffected students killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher. Not even a grade school, as we sadly learned from Sandy Hook Elementary, in Newton, Conn., where a 20-year-old gunman killed 20 children between the ages of 6 and 7, and six adult staff members in 2012.
Nor are movie theaters, as we know from Aurora, Colo., where a gunman dressed in tactical clothing killed 12 and injured 70 at a 2012 midnight premiere showing of “The Dark Knight Rises.”
Nor are nightclubs, as we saw last year at Pulse, the gay club in Orlando where a 29-year-old Florida man methodically killed 49 people and wounded 58 more.
Nor are sports events safe. The two bombs exploding at the 2013’s Boston Marathon proved that . Three people died and 16 lost limbs among hundreds of wounded.
It’s frightening. It’s enough to make a person never leave the house. That’s possible, certainly. You can curl up with Netflix rather than go out to the movies. Shop on Amazon and avoid the mall. Take courses online, not in the lecture hall.
But this would be the wrong response. To retreat would give evil a victory. Stephen Paddock and other mass killers are products of American society. We produced them, therefore, we should find them, root them out and prevent them from acting out their horrific fantasies. And we should make it impossible for them to get their hands on automatic weapons.
Before this era of mass shootings, American life was filled with plenty of other perils. Hundreds of people died in theater fires (492 at the Cocoanut Grove nightclub in Boston in 1942; 602 at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago in 1903). Boiler explosions, Steamship fires, cities burning down, all pretty common disasters. Mass disasters like these are largely things of the past. Why? Because people took steps to prevent them with better building standards, stricter fire codes, safer technologies.
Today, it’s different. No one is taking positive action. No one taking steps to change the status quo. The gun lobby’s hold on Congress — and the Trump White House — is so firm that the mere suggestion of sensible gun safety measures seems dead on arrival. The public seems to be giving up; last year, a mere 36 percent supported banning assault weapons, according to Gallup.
To the contrary, Congress is currently considering widening the use of silencers – exactly the wrong thing if you want to know from where a mass shooter is firing. And, predictably, we’re hearing from those who say the best answer is to encourage more people to carry firearms and shoot back — (although any fans’ handguns would have been useless against the long-distance barrage in Las Vegas.) People are told to pray, as if mass shootings were a natural disaster and not preventable.
Americans should not have to live in fear of pursuing the everyday pleasures and necessities of life. We cannot allow people with serious mental imbalances be allowed to build arsenals of weapons and ammunition which are designed for the military; designed to eliminate scores of enemies in a single round. Why not elect people to office who will take assault weapons — weapons of war that have no utility for hunting and no legitimate rationale for self-defense — out of circulation and out of our nightmares.
Our kids should feel safe on the streets and in school, not like potential victims.
I have no problem with people owning guns , if used for the right purpose , hunting / self de ... I do so take offence with automatics / assault weapons , Americans , we need to get back to what is important and killing each other will not make things better .
ReplyDeleteGreat post
Love my friend
Witchy
Good comment. You said it all right there old buddy. Thank you
ReplyDeleteLove Shadow