Amid all the noise and chatter surrounding the killings in Santa Barbara last Friday there was a voice: "Why did Chris die? Chris died because of craven, irresponsible politicians and the NRA. They talk about gun rights, what about Chris' right to live?" he continued. "When will this insanity stop?" he said. "When will enough people say, stop this madness, we don't have to live like this? Too many have died. We should say to ourselves. Not one more." It was the father of one of the victims, Richard Martinez.
This raised the requisite number of gun-rights discussions, rants and raves, filling comment boards with the usual rhetoric, most of it centering on the question of what methods the deranged nitwit used to dispense his twisted vision of justice. His first three victims were stabbed to death. "I guess we should outlaw knives," insisted a number of posts. Still more suggested that we outlaw cars, since a number of people were wounded when the nitwit's BMW careened through the streets of Santa Barbara. That's when I got snarky myself: "I would be fine with a Constitutional Ban on BMWs," I posted just below the snark of my fellow members of the Internation.
I was kidding, but that's my response to the horror these days. Here's the thing, for me anyway: I wouldn't really ask Congress to promote or consider a law outlawing expensive foreign cars, or cutlery for that matter. If somebody wants to kill someone, a car or a knife or a hammer or their bare hands will do the job just as effectively as a gun. The right to own a BMW or steak knives are not protected by our Constitution. I looked it up.
That was me being snarky again.
Two semi-automatic handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition don't make this a gun issue. It's a human issue. If someone who is an advocate for guns can explain to me how we can live together in a world that has this much anger, pain and mental illness in it without adding more weapons of any sort to the mix, I'm all ears. If you think we should throw the Second Amendment out with Slavery and Prohibition, please explain how we get all that evil back into Pandora's Box. I'm fresh out of ideas.
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