Crazy Train

 Next stop on the Crazy Train: Norway. Everybody out. 

You may have read about the bow and arrow attack in Norway last Wednesday. If you haven't, I will catch you up: Five people were killed and two more injured in a bow and arrow attack in the town of Konigsberg. Authorities arrested a lone suspect, a Danish man they believe acted alone. These same authorities are looking into the possibility that it was "an act of terror." 

Well, of course it was. People strolling down the avenues of Konigsberg don't expect to be pierced by flying projectiles as they go about their daily business. Arrows? What year is this? Not just terrifying, but positively medieval. Prime Minister of Norway, Erna Solberg, said, "The perpetrator has carried out horrific acts against several people. It is a very dramatic situation that has hit Kongsberg society hard, and the events shake us all."

It should be noted that Ms. Solberg is in the last few days of her term, and is being replaced by a new Prime Minister, Jonas Gahr Store. One can only hope that Mr. Store will has a plan to get tough on bow and arrow control. 

At least that's what idjits waiting at the Crazy Train stops here in America are wondering. And worrying. Colorado's nutjob congressperson Lauren Boebert tweeted: "A man in Norway just killed a bunch of people with a bow and arrow. Norway has some of the strictest gun laws around, yet mass killings still occur. Liberals need to understand it is not the gun - it is the criminal who commits the act!"

Quick take here: When bows and arrows are outlawed, only outlaws will have bows and arrows. We're looking at you, Hawkeye.

Of course, what's missing here is the sense of proportion. Five people were killed in Norway. Tragic no matter how you look at it. A hundred people a day die from gun violence every day in the United States. Every day. The most shocking part of this story is that it was a bow and arrow attack. News of the hundred souls lost to gun violence every day in the United States don't get this kind of attention because there is just too much of it. Every day. To crib from a Monty Python skit, Ms. Boebert seems to suggest that we stop being so sentimental, since people are killed in large groups every day.

The absurd protraction of this line of thought would be to wonder if a hundred Americans were killed every day by bow and arrow if we would take a hard look at their availability. Currently, statistics for bow and arrow related deaths are difficult to find, but while you're waiting for the train to come and pick you up, why not look into that.