reflectivepundit

The Shame of a Nation (II): Outlaw Military Assault Weapons in the Hands of Civilians

By Brigitte L. Nacos

The 20-year old who killed 12 little girls and 8 little boys and six women within a few minutes in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, carried a .223 Bushmaster semiautomatic rifle and two semiautomatic pistols, including a .10 mm Glock and a .9 mm Sig Sauer. These three weapons plus two hunting rifles were owned by the shooter’s mother who, according to media reports, was a gun enthusiast, a person fascinated with guns.

Her son used the Buckmaster rifle, an assault weapon used by the military, in his horrific attack. It is not known yet, how many bullets were shot. But according to Connecticut’s chief medical examiner, H. Wayne Carver II, all victims were hit multiple times. Moreover, as Dr. Carver revealed, the bullets the attacker used were designed “in such a fashion the energy is deposited in the tissue so the bullet stays in” and therefore resulting in deep damage.

In the renewed gun-control debate, there are demands for background checks, longer waiting times, stricter rules for gun show and online sales.

All of that might help a bit.

But it hardly would have kept the Connecticut mother from buying those weapons and her son from using the most lethal one in his attack.

Therefore, the law provision most urgently needed is the categorical ban of military-type assault weapons in the hands of civilians.

Apart from the military and SWAT teams, nobody has any reason to own killer-weapons that mow down dozens and dozens of targets within minutes.

Later today, President Obama will visit Newtown, the small New England community that experienced the ultimate nightmare.

In the face of unspeakable tragedy, a good president becomes the consoler-in-chief.

But that is not enough. He must now become the attack-dog-in-chief against the National Rifle Association and its allies.

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Unless there is a categorical ban of automatic weapons, shootings in public places will be as American as apple pie.

Consider this, in the week of the Connecticut massacre

• a gunman at an Oregon shopping mall killed two people and wounded a third amid a holiday crowd estimated at 10,000 people;
• an 18-year-old student in Oklahoma was arrested for allegedly plotting a shooting and bombing attack at Bartlesville High School the same day the mass shooting occurred in the Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown;
• one day after the Connecticut massacre, a man was arrested after firing about 50 shots in the parking lot of a Southern California shopping mall, prompting a lockdown of stores crowded with holiday shoppers. In this case, fortunately, no one was harmed.
• Also on Saturday, a man in Cedar Lake, Indiana, who had 47 guns hidden in his home was arrested after he threatened to "kill as many people as he could" at an elementary school.

And then this latest incident--today: St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Newtown, Connecticut, was evacuated during noon Mass, after a man had called the church and said, “I’m coming to kill, I’m coming to kill.”

The Shame of a Nation: Giving in to Gun Fanatics and Gutless Politicians

 By Brigitte L. Nacos

With a touch of indignation in his voice veteran newsman Bob Schieffer told his CBS News audience this morning that the National Rifle Association is the most influential among the mighty lobbies in Washington. Of course, this is absolutely true. And it is equally true that politicians on both sides of the aisle shake in their boots, when the topic of effective gun control comes up.

And they shut up.

With the exception of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy whose husband was killed in a multiple shooting incident in a Long Island Railroad train and who has relentlessly fought for sensible gun control.

In vain.

President Obama’s words yesterday reflected the heart-breaking sentiments of many, many Americans. “We’re going to have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this, regardless of the politics,” he said.

But these words are not enough in the face of still another unspeakable massacre.

President Obama must embrace Mayor Michel Bloomberg’s categorical pro-gun-control stand and force members of congress to follow the will of the vast majority of Americans who are in favor of gun control.

The gun fanatics like to tell us that guns do not kill—that people kill.

The enablers of these armed madmen do not acknowledge that there are far more incidents of public shootings in states without gun-control than in those that have restrictions on gun ownership.

Why in heaven do we Americans allow assault weapons in the hands of literally anyone who wants them?

Yesterday, the day of the Newtown school shooting, the state of Michigan passed a bill that allows the carrying of concealed weapons in previously off-limits areas, including schools. The gun-happy Michigan legislators did not pause when they learned of the mass shooting in Connecticut. Instead, Michigan House Speaker Jase Bolger claimed that the new law might have been “the difference between life and death for many innocent bystanders.”

Can you believe such nonsense? Does this guy tell us to arm our children and send them to school with concealed weapons on their hips—so that they can defend themselves against bad guys with semiautomatic weapons?