“There is no solution to the gun problem, and little more to write, because Americans are addicted to firearms.
“Representative Jared Golden, from Maine’s Second Congressional District, has reversed course and says he will now support outlawing military-style semiautomatic rifles like the one used in the killing of 18 people in Lewiston this week. But neither the House nor the Senate is likely to pass such a law, and if Congress actually did, the Supreme Court, as it now exists, would almost certainly rule it unconstitutional.
“Every mass shooting is a gut-punch; with every one, unimaginative people say, “I never thought it could happen here,” but such things can and will happen anywhere and everywhere in this locked-and-loaded country. The guns are available and the targets are soft.
“When rapid-fire guns are difficult to get, things improve, but I see no such improvement in the future. Americans love guns, and appear willing to pay the price in blood.”
Shelter in place?
That’s sort of a pretty way of saying it, but the real American motto these days is much shorter and simpler.
HIDE!
Today is the 301st day of the year 2023, and there have been 565 mass shootings in the United States this year, according to the Gun Violence Institute. A mass shooting is defined as one in which at least four people are shot or killed.
Other countries?
Well, how about school shootings?
The passage that opens this post is by author Stephen King, writing in the New York Times. He points out that “it can’t happen here” has become a sick joke and shootings are happening anywhere and everywhere in our sick country.
I’m too old to make any major changes in my life, but I have two nephews in their early to mid 20s and six grandchildren ranging in age from 9 to 18. My grandchildren live outside the country most of the time with their parents in the Foreign Service and my nephews live in the Northeastern U.S.
Three of my grandchildren have French citizenship through their mother, which to me gives them at least a possible escape.
I was born in December 1949, and through the 1950s and ’60s, America was one of the few places in the world without being stuck with the damage done in the Hitler war. When our parents made us eat our vegetables because “children are starving in Europe,” it was only a slight imagination.
We were the richest country in the world.
Now we’ve got Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and the other mega-billionaires. I’ve got nothing against Taylor Swift at all, but it is so ridiculous that she’s already a billionaire.
And seventy percent of Americans are at best just getting by.
Is it any wonder that there are more and more shootings every day.? The real shame of it is, they’re shooting the wrong people, and that’s all I will say in that area.
There really is no solution as long as people think having firepower is about protecting their freedom.