NO WORDS

Until I see the possibility of the enactment of sensible laws to regulate ownership of guns in the United States, I have no words. I am silenced by the insanity of acceptance of a culture of frequent mass shootings with no will to change.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

Surely, when the framers of the Second Amendment to the US Constitution included the words "A well regulated Militia", they did not intend the amendment to give free rein to the carnage we see happening all too frequently today.  Why do we continue to ignore the words "well-regulated" in the amendment?  That is all. 

'OUR MOLOCH'

First Moloch, horrid king, besmear’d with blood Of human sacrifice, and parents’ tears, Though for the noise of Drums and Timbrels loud Their children’s cries unheard, that pass’d through fire To his grim idol. (Paradise Lost 1.392-96)

Read again those lines, with recent images seared into our brains—“besmeared with blood” and “parents’ tears.” They give the real meaning of what happened at Sandy Hook Elementary School Friday morning. That horror cannot be blamed just on one unhinged person. It was the sacrifice we as a culture made, and continually make, to our demonic god. We guarantee that crazed man after crazed man will have a flood of killing power readily supplied him. We have to make that offering, out of devotion to our Moloch, our god. The gun is our Moloch. We sacrifice children to him daily—sometimes, as at Sandy Hook, by directly throwing them into the fire-hose of bullets from our protected private killing machines, sometimes by blighting our children’s lives by the death of a parent, a schoolmate, a teacher, a protector. Sometimes this is done by mass killings (eight this year), sometimes by private offerings to the god (thousands this year).

Read Garry Wills' entire op-ed and see what we have become as a country.

Below are the firearms found at the scene in Sandy Hook Elementary School.  The Bushmaster was used in the killings.  Descriptions of the guns may be found here.

An AR-15 is usually capable of firing a rate of 45 rounds per minute in semiautomatic mode.

Lanza used one of the pistols to kill himself.

Bushmaster .223 caliber Remington semiautomatic

Sig Sauer 9 mm

Glock 10mm pistol Auto

AND THE SHOOTINGS GO ON

New Orleans — The fatal shooting of a man in the St. Claude neighborhood Tuesday morning continued a four-day stretch of violence that has left five people dead in New Orleans and Jefferson Parish, and several others wounded.

Five people dead in four days.  The local murders do not often make the national news, but they demand attention.  Clearly we must change our laws and our ways.

The names:

Nathan Johnson, 36
Devanta Thomas, 18
Joseph Wilfred, 56
Lawrence Burt, 18
Vivian Snyder, 56 

In addition to the homicides, New Orleans police are investigating several non-fatal shootings, including a robbery at a popular Uptown eatery that included gun play. Police were called out to “Dat Dog” restaurant in the 5000 block of Freret Street on Monday after an employee was shot in the arm during a robbery.
....

Police are also investigating a shooting near the intersection of North Claiborne Street and Iberville Streets that damaged a school bus. That incident occurred at about 4:37 p.m. The victim told police he was walking home from work when an unknown vehicle approached him and someone began shooting.

The victim was shot four times in the back and legs. A school bus carrying students from an Algiers high school was caught in the crossfire and had a window shattered. One child was hit by flying glass, but no serious injuries were reported.

Though New Orleans is the murder capitol of the country, killings by guns take place all over the land, and we pay little attention unless there is mass murder, and we, as a country, seem to accept this is how we must live.  As I've already said, the estimate of the number of firearms in the country is around 300 million, nearly one for each man, woman, and child in the country.  Will the guns at large be grandfathered in any gun legislation that passes?  That is if any sort of firearms legislation with teeth is enacted...legislation without loopholes large enough to shoot a cannonball through.

Even now, there is a sharp spike in the sale of guns, as there was when the president was first elected and when he was reelected, because, "Obama's gonna ban guns or take away all our guns."  What?  Do these folks plan a stand-off if or when the government comes to take away their guns?  And (Lord help us!) sales of armored backpacks for children are increasing.

The reaction to the Connecticut school shooting can be seen in gun stores and self-defense retailers across the nation: Anxious parents are fuelling sales of armoured backpacks for children while firearms enthusiasts are stocking up on assault rifles in anticipation of tighter gun-control measures.

So.  Will we have firearms legislation with teeth enacted any time soon?  I am not feeling optimistic, but those of us who think we can do better as a people to restore a measure of safety from gun violence should do all we can to pressure our legislators and the president to act.  However, a word of caution: We should not burden the president and Congress with responsibility to do the impossible...say to ban all firearms.  That will not happen.  We must urge action for the best laws possible now and hope to build on the laws later.  We must ban assault weapons and magazines that hold multiple rounds of bullets, and we must have better laws and law enforcement on background checks and better controls on the sale of guns.  Assault weapons are so-named for a reason; they are not defense weapons.  Nor are assault weapons for the purpose of hunting.  Any hunter who needs an assault weapon to kill game is one sorry-ass hunter.

UPDATE: I left out the link to another shooting in Florida:

ST. PETERSBURG — Florida's controversial "stand your ground" law has been cited in hundreds of cases. People have used it to justify shooting, stabbing, killing and maiming would-be intruders, romantic competitors and rival gang members.

And on Sunday, at a pizza joint in St. Petersburg, a man tried to use it as justification for shooting another customer who was yelling at workers because he wasn't getting his order fast enough.

Note: Post edited to correct information about The Globe and Mail.