The Status Quo: The Body Count Increases & We Don’t Give a Damn

What is the difference between a law-abiding citizen who has the constitutional right, according to the National Rifle Association and their interpretation of the second amendment, to bear arms and a crazed individual? This person could have failed Anger Management 101, be chemically deranged, or mentally incompetent There is not much difference, the similarity exists the moment anyone takes a gun, aims it at another human being and pulls the trigger. There really isn't much to distinguish them. They are impossible to tell apart and this is what causes legislatures and the judicial system to vacillate back and forth.

All Americans have a constitutional right—the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and that is not going to happen if they're shot to death. From data reported by the National Center of Injury Prevention and Control, during the years 1981 to and including 2004, 797,057 people died from gunshots, the same number of people living in Jacksonville, FL. Toss in the data from nonfatal gunshots from 2000 to 2004 and extrapolate it to that same period and you get 1,573,253 wounded people. That's greater than the population of Phoenix, AZ. We don't blink an eye about this; we have become numb to these statistics. It is something we have come to except. It's the American way of life.

The NRA loves it when a security guard evened things up with a killer as happened at the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO this past Sunday. Jeanne Assam, the guard told reporters, "…I came out of cover and identified myself and engaged and took him down (killed him)." I applaud Assam; she did her job. She is a hero. My comment is WHY do we need to have an armed guard in a church, in the first place. What has happened to the fabric of the American character? Have we degraded to this state of affairs? Have we no shame? I don't believe in a gun in every house, and an ammo loading bench press in every garage. NRA, get off your soapbox, fight for gun regulation instead! Guns for professional security, period!

K.