Our national shame
And what are the responses of our politicians, specifically the politicians running for president, to this carnage? Well, Hillary Clinton and Martin O'Malley have put forth plans for gun control. Bernie Sanders has been drafting one.
As for the Republican candidates, they all offer their "thoughts and prayers" to the victims, but no solutions, no ideas. They are waiting for God to fix it.
The best headline of the week after the San Bernardino massacre was this from The Daily News of New York:
Dear God, it's me Judy. Please fix the Republicans.
ReplyDeleteThat's a prayer that a lot of us could get behind.
DeleteThis wasn't just another shooting. It has the trademarks of terrorism; it just hasn't been acknowledge as such.
ReplyDeleteA mass shooting is a mass shooting and the victims are just as dead whether you call it terrorism, domestic terrorism, workplace violence, the work of a mentally ill lone wolf, etc., etc. The root cause, in my opinion, in all of these instances is the same - namely, the ease with which any of these bad actors can lay their hands on guns and ammunition in this country and the refusal of of our elected officials to do anything to change that..
DeleteWhile the loss of lives is despicable, acts of terrorism be it domestic or from established groups, don't follow the same channels to procure weapons and other means to carry out their carnage. If you want to address terrorism you have to attack their financial networks, not make amendments to the Constitution. That said, I agree that gun control should be addressed the sooner the better, but violence by arms and terrorism have different roots; it isn't the same problem. Otherwise you could argue that France had a terrorist attack recently due to lax gun laws. Was that the case?
ReplyDeleteI take your point, but I doubt that the San Bernardino killers were financed by an international terrorist group. From what I know of the situation so far, they seem to have been home-grown. And I don't think the daily mass shootings in America are really analogous to the one-time event in France. Our mass shootings have an altogether different root. I do agree with you, however, that the key to fighting terrorism is to deny it funds, as well as refusing to aid and abet its recruitment through demonizing innocent people.
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