Shooting Sprees

There has been a spate of shootings within the last few months at schools, theatres and other places throughout the country, most notable among them in Sandy Hook where a teen gunned down school kids using his mother's guns. The kid supposedly had mental problems. This is the official story.

This has mobilized people into knee-jerk reactions to ban guns everywhere, while some counter that teachers should be armed or that there should be cops in every school to stop these kinds of massacres.

Everyone has been falling over themselves to blame someone else. The liberals blame gun manufacturers and the NRA. The NRA blames liberals for wanting to take guns away which goes against the 2nd Amendment of the Constitution. Some blame violent movies and video games.

All of these arguments are simplistic and ignore the bigger problem and the chief culprit: The US government.

The US is the most aggressive country in the world. It currently has troops stationed in over 130 countries. It has 700 known bases, possibly a thousand or more when secret facilities are factored in. It is currently engaged in an 11-year old war in Afghanistan, occupation of Iraq, unrest in Mali, Libya, Somalia, fomenting chaos and death in Syria, threatens Iran, and is the world's number-one weapons peddler. The US government has excused and normalized torture. It has declared the right to kill US citizens anywhere without trial if they are deemed a threat. It has legalized indefinite detention for whoever is deemed a threat to national security, with or without evidence of wrong-doing.

No matter how hard anyone may try to deny it, these violent and thuggish US government policies and actions at home and abroad influence the actions of its citizens.

A government which uses unmanned drones to bomb Afghan villages should not be surprised when someone starts shooting up elementary schools and movie theatres.

Merge the violent acts perpetrated by the US government with the US politicians' casual talk of “taking out” Iran or openly discussing the overthrow of a foreign leader in Syria as if they were discussing changing a pair of shoes, and sooner or later people will put the two together and justify the killing of others in order to solve a personal problem. After all, if the president can do it, why not them!

Deny it all you want, but this is the truth, whether anyone cares to admit it or not. The actions of the government do influence the citizenry.

It was really sick when Obama went on TV after the Sandy Hook shootings and declared that we must be “kinder” to each other and look for peaceful solutions.

This coming from a president who sees fit to drone bomb anyone he perceives as a threat, approves official “kill lists” and threatens countries with war and invasion.

That no one called Obama out on his stinking hypocrisy during his self-righteous speech is a sign how cowardly the media and the citizens of the US are.

But as far as guns go, banning them will not solve anything. It's not the guns. Its the people who kill, people who are influenced by their government's violent policies and actions. These violent actions translate into kitschy Hollywood propaganda spectacles and historics like “Argo,” “Zero Dark Thirty” and other war/regime-change/torture-excusing sub-standard tripe. It also permeates these violent war-glorifying video games, where Germans, Arabs and Russians are always the enemy.

The talk from these right-winger gun nuts about the right to bear arms, how Obama is trying to take their guns away, and how their guns protect them from tyranny and ensure their freedom is equally nauseating.

But where were these gun-toting super patriots when Bush Jr. enacted the Patriot Act which deprived them of some of their most important freedoms?

They cheered their loss of rights in the hills of Afghanistan and the sands of Iraq.

What did they do when he lied the country into an illegal war?

They re-elected the lying bastard for another four years as a reward.

Their guns did NOTHING to stop these despicable and illegal acts and the erosion of constitutional rights, which continue today!

Guns won't stop tyrants; only a courageous, thoughtful and informed citizenry can. A gun is just a tool.

But while I'm against the banning of guns, I'm all for more responsible gun ownership.

Some things that can be done:

-Mandatory state/federal registration of all firearms

-Mandatory license per firearm regardless of type

-Mandatory officially-recorded transfer of gun ownership (no more private sales)

-Mandatory yearly tax per firearm

-Mandatory firearm safety training (paid for by firearm tax proceeds)

-Mandatory purchase of gun locks at the time firearm is purchased

-Tighter control of firearms at home in order to prevent accidental shootings or use of firearms by individuals other than owner to commit crimes/shootings, etc.

-Pass law making gun owner fully responsible for accidental death/criminal use of their firearm by someone else due to owner's lax control of firearm (with or without owner's knowledge)

Granted, these tightened regulations will not stop the criminal elements from obtaining guns illegally to commit crimes, but they can very well stop the next disgruntled nutcase from shooting up a school or mall using legally purchased firearms, or a kid from accidentally shooting himself or their friend using a loaded gun which was unsecured by their guardian. To me, this alone justifies the stricter gun regulations mentioned above.

There has to be a happy medium which does not infringe on gun owners rights but which ensures less of these unhappy shooting incidents. Unfortunately, there are no moderate voices being allowed into the gun debate. 

We only have a bunch of liberal-leaning paranoiacs that want to ban it all, and a bunch of right-winger gun nuts who want to have all the guns and ammo without assuming any real responsibility for them. Both of these extremes play on peoples emotions and are not allowing reasonable solutions to be reached.

Banning guns, no; making gun owners more accountable for their firearms, yes!

Perhaps the politicians who scream for gun control should also divest themselves and their families from all investments in companies which make weapons and other war equipment. While they're at it, they should also stop voting for wars and acts of aggression against other countries.

They need to set the right example, not hypocritically whine about gun violence and trying to ban guns while threatening, bombing and invading countries.

Responsible gun ownership is the price Americans MUST pay for the right to keep them.

There can be no more extremes on this issue.