Once again it’s thrust in front of us.  First it’s breaking news, “there’s been a shooting…”.  Then the details start emerging, a Congresswoman, in this case…the numbers  of the murdered and wounded being  breathlessly talked about like a falling stock market or football scores…then the shooter details start to emerge…the individual acts of heroism…the families of all concerned…and all the rest of the dog and pony “if it leads it bleeds” show. The mouthing’s from the politicians and talking heads… “senseless tragedy” ; always the popular catch-phrase.  Like a bad movie that we all know by heart but cannot stop the replay, this particular title of “Another mass shooting”, plays out again over and over. And we always wonder… “Could this have been prevented?”, “ Was someone or something to blame?”, “Will there be more?”, and “All countries have this problem, right?” Well I have some answers, and they ain’t gonna be pretty.

Taking it from the top, the answers are , “no…, definitely /partially,… yes,… and no.”  First off, you have to go to the third world to find countries who have a decades long tradition of having their politicians gunned down the way we do. Does our neighbor to the north, Canada have this problem? No they do not. Does England have this problem? No they do not. Nor does Germany, France, or most all other civilized societies around the world . Only in this United States of ours do we murder and attempt to murder our politicians with such regularity. And a large contributing reason for this is the fact that as a nation of 300 million people we own at least 283 million guns, you do the math.  Which brings us to another fact… no, this really was not a preventable tragedy.  Based upon our current laws there was no way to keep that deranged maniac, Jared Lougher from buying his weapon of choice.  He gathered up his mental faculties up just long enough to waltz into his local sporting goods store and leave with the weapon of his choice.  Not to mention his nice big magazines, you have to be able to shoot that deer 32 times, you know. Or riddle that home invader stealing your precious lamp.  For better or worse, we live in a society awash in firearms, and they all have capabilities our founding fathers could not have imagined.  I’m not really going to debate that here either.  I will mention that I can argue both sides of this issue quite well.  The second amendment is there… having said that, it’s the only amendment where the founding fathers put their ORIGINAL INTENT in it.  As in, “a well regulated militia”.  And they put that in first, with “the people” in behind it. I think I can argue intent here.  In those days there was not a standing army, Washington had to raise one..remember?  But there were state militia’s then, which were necessary to the security of a free state.  So yes, for the purpose of having a state militia, its obvious that the founding fathers wanted some sort of private firearm ownership to exist.  They did not say anything about hunting….nor about protecting one’s self from the crazy neighbor down the street. Nor, for that matter, about  shooting politicians who support social programs helping the less fortunate among us.  No Olympic target shooting was mentioned either.  Just “a well regulated militia.”  It can be easily argued that was the ORIGINAL INTENT.  And its quite possible that someday, a Supreme Court will, in fact rule just that way.  Having said all of that, I am very certain that if private firearm ownership is restricted in this country, then… to quote the phrase; “if guns are outlawed only outlaws will have guns” will become a reality.  Because no matter what any court anywhere would say, the cold hard reality is that you cannot wave a magic wand and make those 283 million firearms vanish.  Even if you could, an underground industry of firearm manufacturing would spring up overnight.  To my fellow progressive’s out there, its not rocket science to make a modern, repeating firearm.  These things have been pumped out since the beginning of the industrial revolution, all you need is a lathe and a milling machine.  Are we going to then outlaw lathes and milling machines?  What about smuggled weapons? How has the “war on drugs” worked out?  A “war on firearms”  would make that look like a grand success.  And if it could not be done in times of prosperity, it sure as hell should not be done now.  Talk about carnage, armed home invasions, gangs roaming the streets, robberies everywhere, we would unravel pretty quickly. Even if you do not personally own a firearm, would you put a sign on your door or in your yard saying  “this house is gun free?”  See what I mean? It’s a real quandary, folks.  Another juicy slice of pure Americana, we live with it because we have never known any other way.

So to answer another one of our collective questions, yes, there will be more of these shootings.  Not stabbings…no public figure will be beaten to death with a baseball bat, last time I checked, we have never had a politician Kung-Fu’ed to death either.  No, he…or she….will be shot…at close range…with a handgun, that will probably have been legally purchased.  And all the paranoid, anti government, whack job loons will run out and buy that particular make that will be used before it gets “banned”.  You can figure out which side of the political aisle they are on.  Which brings us to the final big question, “was anyone/anything to blame?” Oh yes, most certainly.

If a person is in a crowded theater and yells “Fire, fire, run, run”, and someone gets injured or trampled to death, what happens? What does society do? They are arrested, and charged with inciting a riot, and if someone is hurt or killed, then, as a society we charge the guilty party with murder, or attempted murder.  The defendant will try and use a first amendment, free speech defense, but it will not work, because…as in all rights, they are not absolute, and with a right comes responsibility when one exercises this right.  Let’s take a look at how some of our political figures and others who are in a position to influence people have been acting lately, shall we? And we are going to name names here.

We have the disgusting  spectacle of the REPUBLICAN Senate candidate from Nevada, Sharon Angle who said, “If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking towards those Second Amendment remedies.” Closely followed with, “we have to take Harry Reid out.” We have the former half governor from Alaska,  REPUBLICAN Sarah Palin;  who put bull’s-eyes on the congressional district of Gabrielle Giffords and other politicians she disagrees with…and then, of course, like the two faced phony she truly is, denied they were, in fact, the very bull’s-eyes she chortled about after the election. (“18 of the 20 bull’s-eyes were defeated”)  Or the ever helpful REPUBLICAN  congresswoman  Michelle Bachmann who said, “I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back.  She went on with, “Thomas Jefferson told us ‘having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,’ and the people — we the people — are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country.”  Or Glenn Beck, who on his show on the Fox propaganda channel,  depicted our president as “a Vampire, a Count Dracula”, then dramatically picked up a wooden stake and a large hammer, and intoned “….and you know what you do with a vampire, you drive a stake through their heart.” Or Bill O’Rielly of the same Fox Propaganda channel, who, year after year used the phrase ; “Tiller the baby killer”.  And then feigned astonishment when  a far right loon gunned the doctor down.  And as for the head of the Republican party, Rush Limbaugh?  Here are just one days worth of headlines from his show: “Democrats eager to see Obama profit from mass murder.”  “The irresponsible sheriff Dupnik Ignores all real evidence in the case”.  “An embarrassment for the Media and Sick, Desperate, American Left.”  Rush did the caps there, not me. And we can go on an on. Because NO….MY SIDE DOES NOT DO THIS. ONLY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY DOES THIS.  Yes, we have crazy bloggers who spout venom. Never mind what the right wing bloggers spout, btw.  Did you see Joe Biden’s website with GUN CROSSHAIRS on it like his REPUBLICAN opponent Sarah Palin had?  No you DID NOT.  Did you hear Harry Reid talk about using guns to change the political system like his opponent,  REPUBLICAN Sharon Angle did?  Have you heard Randi Rhodes, Rachel Madow or Chris Matthews compare a United States Senator to a Nazi mass murder like RIGHT WING talk show star Michael Savage did when he compared Barber Boxer to Josef Mengle?  No you did not.  The FACTS  are, that there is a climate of hate being created in this country by REPUBLICAN politicians and personalities, who, cravenly and cowardly are hiding behind the first amendment, the very first amendment the founding fathers wrote guaranteeing  the right of free speech.  With that right, of course came responsibility.  Rights are not absolute.  Thirty two round clips did not exist in 1791, when the bill of rights was ratified.  Nor did the ability to reach millions of people at once with craven rants, designed to inflame, to foster hate, create divisiveness…and to push the unbalanced over the edge. Yes, the good Sherriff of Arizona,  had it right when he said, “The kind of rhetoric that flows from Rush Limbaugh, in my judgment he is irresponsible, uses partial information, sometimes wrong information,” Dupnik said in the interview. “[Limbaugh] attacks people, angers them against government, angers them against elected officials and that kind of behavior in my opinion is not without consequences.”  Dupnik added that a “the vitriol affects the [unstable] personality that we are talking about.  You can say, ‘Oh, no it doesn’t,’ but my opinion is that it does.”  I applaud him for standing firm against the leader of the REPUBLICAN party, Rush Limbaugh.  Oh, and to those who say that the ignorant, bombastic, lying sack of shit who spews his nonsense to morons daily  from his Palm Beach bunker does NOT speak for the REPUBLICAN party…please let me know when one, just ONE REPUBLICAN criticized their lying, morally bankrupt figurehead.  Just one, that’s all.

And to those who say, “but its free speech.”  Well, yes it is. As has been pointed out many, many times, with freedom comes responsibility.  How we deal with this will say a lot about us as a society.  As always, I don’t hold my breath.  I’m not a religious person, but I am praying to something, somewhere to take care of that wonderful public servant Gabrielle Giffords.  I could say something like “I know both sides are doing that.” Or, “that’s something that we can all agree on.”  But that would be a lie, because every single REPUBLICAN that I have named is not doing that at all, now are they?  If they were doing so, they would not have been inciting  murderous violence against  those who they do not agree with all these years, now would they? There might be some who are…and maybe someone will criticize their Fuhrer, RUSH LIMBAUGH, but I am not holding my breath on that either.  I will now close with one of my personal favorite quotes, this one  by Samuel Johnson, “Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.” REPUBLICANS, please take note of that.

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