Karma's a Bitch

I got called out by a few people on Facebook yesterday for posting about the shooting in DC and pointing out that Scalise, the Congressman wounded the most severely, was a strong supporter of the 2nd Amendment, had an A+ rating from the NRA, and had voted to loosen regulations on automatic weapons. 

Oh, the irony! Karma, as I pointed out, is a bitch.

One person said my remarks were in poor taste. Another felt that such remarks only fuel the flames of anger and divisiveness.  Another said it wasn't the gun's fault.

Evidently I should have confined my remarks to praying for and sending good wishes to the injured. But while I certainly am not celebrating this despicable act, I couldn't help but notice that these congressmen who were the targets of the madman with a gun are the same people who resist every effort to rein in the epidemic of gun violence in our country. Indeed, one of them, Rand Paul, tweeted that the 2nd Amendment wasn't about shooting deer but resisting tyranny. 

Of course, that tweet was during the Obama administration. 

But all indications are that resisting tyranny was exactly what the shooter thought he was doing. Funny how that works.   

At least wait till they're out of the hospital, someone else said. Don't politicize this tragedy!

Oh, please! 

This was the 153rd mass shooting of 2017, according to a count by the Gun Violence Archive, a not-for-profit organization that tracks shootings across the country. And while people were fussing about insensitivity and the like, a 154th mass shooting happened in San Francisco. 

Madness. And it's destroying our country. 

I truly hope that the Congressman and the other wounded (an aide, a lobbyist (??!!!???), and a member of the security detail) make a full recovery.

 No one should die at the hands of a deranged gunman -- not kindergartners, not gays, not policemen, not anyone -- including politicians.

And I truly hope that this might be a Come-to-Jesus moment for the Congressional opponents of even the smallest attempts to limit near universal access to automatic weapons.

But I'm not optimistic.

If Sandy Hook wasn't enough to make the Right reconsider their love affair with automatic weapons and their dependence on big donations from the NRA,  I doubt that this will sway them.  

As I said, though, Karma is a bitch. And  eventually she'll bite you in the ass.

Looking for Answers....

We're all looking for answers in the wake of yet another mass shooting -- how can such things happen and who can we blame?

Governor Huckabee said it's because God's not allowed in schools. (I can hardly believe a mind that would worship a god of such petty vindictiveness. And beside, where was this God when  a gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide?. Where was God when six people were killed during services at a Sikh temple?)

That fine Christian James Dobson says the Sandy Hook tragedy is the inevitable result of abortion and gay marriages and some of his fellow extremists mention the teaching of evolution and lack of prayers in the classrooms as a contributing factor to God's turning  His back on all those little six year olds.

Pick your agenda -- there's a way to explain Sandy Hook that will further that agenda. Orly Taitz, the ‘birther queen’ has suggested that the shooter could have been under some sort of mind control, doing the bidding of the Obama administration so that Obama will have an excuse to take away every  one’s guns

And Iran says Israeli Death Squads were responsible . . .

A lot of responsible  types mention the need for more accessible mental health care -- true enough, but no guarantee that all those in need would avail themselves of help.  And then if they did get help, there's a theory that some psychiatric drugs may cause states of ungovernable rage . . .  

Some of the proposals on how to deal with the threat of these mass shootings seem to me to be truly lunatic. Arm the teachers is perhaps the worst. Can you imagine a harried first grade teacher tossing aside the storybook and pulling her sidearm in time to take out an armed psychopath who's just entered her classroom? Look what happened at Ft. Hood, Texas where an army psychologist  killed 13  and wounded 42. On an Army base -- crawling with trained and armed men and women. And these advocates (who include the governors of Virginia and Texas) for arming teachers think Miss Tammy could do better?

Sales for children's body armor are soaring . . .  and Newsweek's Megan McArdle has suggested that children be trained to rush an armed attacker . . . 

There's plenty of crazy out there, folks.  And I'm crazy enough to think that perhaps a good place to begin would be with gun control. Not taking away everyone's guns -- but outlawing assault rifles, semi-automatic weapons, and high capacity magazines. 

I think that buying a gun should require a thorough background check and a waiting period. Licensing, tests, and insurance wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Of course criminals will be able to get hold of guns. Of course gun control won't put an end to gun violence. But the experience of other countries suggest that the death rates would fall. 

And that would be, at least, a start. 

April 1999 - two teenage schoolboys shot and killed 12 schoolmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, before killing themselves.

July 1999 - a stock exchange trader in Atlanta, Georgia, killed 12 people including his wife and two children before taking his own life.

September 1999 - a gunman opened fire at a prayer service in Fort Worth, Texas, killing six people before committing suicide.

October 2002 - a series of sniper-style shootings occurred in Washington DC, leaving 10 dead.

August 2003 - in Chicago, a laid-off worker shot and killed six of his former workmates.

November 2004 - in Birchwood, Wisconsin, a hunter killed six other hunters and wounded two others after an argument with them.

March 2005 - a man opened fire at a church service in Brookfield, Wisconsin, killing seven people.

October 2006 - a truck driver killed five schoolgirls and seriously wounded six others in a school in Nickel Mines, Pennsylvania before taking his own life.

April 2007 - a student  shot and killed 32 people and wounded 15 others at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia, before shooting himself, making it the deadliest mass shooting in the United States after 2000.

August 2007 - Three Delaware State University students were shot and killed in “execution style” by a 28-year-old and two 15-year-old boys. A fourth student was shot and stabbed.

December 2007 - a 20-year-old man killed nine people and injured five others in a shopping center in Omaha, Nebraska.

December 2007 - a woman and her boyfriend shot dead six members of her family on Christmas Eve in Carnation, Washington.

February 2008 - a shooter who is still at large tied up and shot six women at a suburban clothing store in Chicago, leaving five of them dead and the remaining one injured.

February 2008 - a man opened fire in a lecture hall at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb, Illinois, killing five students and wounding 16 others before laying down his weapon and surrendering.

September 2008 - a mentally ill man who was released from jail one month earlier shot eight people in Alger, Washington, leaving six of them dead and the rest two wounded.

December 2008 - a man dressed in a Santa Claus suit opened fire at a family Christmas party in Covina, California, then set fire on the house and killed himself. Police later found nine people dead in the debris of the house.

March 2009 - a 28-year-old laid-off worker opened fire while driving a car through several towns in Alabama, killing 10 people.

March 2009 - a heavily armed gunman shot dead eight people, many of them elderly and sick people, in a private-owned nursing home in North Carolina.

March 2009 - six people were shot dead in a high-grade apartment building in Santa Clara, California.

April 2009 - a man shot dead 13 people at a civic center in Binghamton, New York.

July 2009 - Six people, including one student, were shot in a drive-by shooting at a community rally on the campus of Texas Southern University, Houston.

November 2009 - U.S. army psychologist opened fire at a military base in Fort Hood, Texas, leaving 13 dead and 42 others wounded.

February 2010 – A professor opened fire 50 minutes into at a Biological Sciences Department faculty meeting at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, killing three colleagues and wounding three others.

January 2011 - a gunman opened fire at a public gathering outside a grocery in Tucson, Arizona, killing six people including a 9-year-old girl and wounding at least 12 others. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was severely injured with a gunshot to the head.

April 2 - A gunman kills seven people and wounds three in a shooting rampage at a Christian college in Oakland.

July 20 - A masked gunman kills 12 people and wounds 58 when he opens fire on moviegoers at a showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, a suburb of Denver, Colorado.

Aug. 5 - A gunman kills six people during Sunday services at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, before he is shot dead by a police officer.

Aug. 24 - Two people are killed and eight wounded in a shooting outside the landmark Empire State Building in New York City at the height of the tourist season.

Sept. 27 - A disgruntled former employee kills five people and takes his own life in a shooting rampage at a Minneapolis sign company from which he had been fired.

Oct. 21 - Three people are killed in a Milwaukee area spa including the estranged wife of the suspected gunman, who then killed himself.

Dec. 14 -  Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut:  shooter kills twenty children and six adults before turning gun on self.