I guess there was another mass shooting yesterday down in Jacksonville, Florida.
........ SSDD.
I would have missed it until tomorrow except I watched the head cop from Jacksonville give his blow by blow version of the tragedy that unfolded. The whole incident only took 11 minutes he said. In that 11 minutes, 4 people lost their lives to gun violence. Throw in the racial motive to the mix and what we have is just another garden variety - white people acting badly against those folks they harbor some kind of clueless and senseless hatred for.
I would not even be posting about it except I was struck by something Sheriff T.K. Waters said while defending the Gun Rights side of the out of control gun stupidity we have going on right now. Don't get me wrong, I think folks should be allowed to own guns, if only because there are so many guns already loose in the hands of our citizens , any law that might be passed restricting them would not work and just anger the crotch tugging NRA boneheads even more.
The sheriff was asked if there had been any red flags raised by this 20 something racist before the shootings. He said the kid had no record and no indications of mental illness. The guns used had been purchased legally. He went on to defend the gun lobbies by saying basically it wasn't the guns that killed those folks, rather it was the madman behind the gun. I am so tired or hearing this kind of mealy mouthed response to the other mealy mouthed accusations from the anti gun crowd. Neither side seems able to even consider some kind of compromise to make our streets a tad safer. All or nothing for both of them.
Sheriiff Waters was then asked another of the stupid questions the media always asks in the immediate aftermath of an incident like this.
"Was there anything that could have been done to have kept this from happening?'
A look of exasperation came over his face. Then he said, "We did everything we could,' quickly following up with, "We do everything we can".
I call bullshit. The sheriff is wrong. The powers that be are not doing what they can to create safer spaces for us to live in. Law enforcement is a reactionary force, not a preemptive force. Any preemptive measures have to be created in the legislatures, state and national. Cops clean up messes, they don't stop them from happening. Only education, public support and common sense shown by both sides will slow down the madness.
The Gun totin assholes who consider owning guns as the true sign of freedom have not done shit to get some control of a situation that has been totally out of control since the day buying assault rifles were once again allowed to be owned by idiots whose only knowledge of guns came from TV and Internet Games. So spare me the crap about its not the gun, its the person shooting the gun. Stop claiming that if we pass laws the problem will fix itself. Both sides of this issue have their respective heads up their respective asses.
Later ...........................
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"Another One Bites the Dust", by Queen seems appropriate. But then so does The Avett Brothers and their more up to date, "Bang, Bang" really nails my current feelings about the stupidity surrounding guns.
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