Tag Archives: Assault Weapons

After Newtown

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The first entry on this blog was written in response to the massacre in Aurora, Colorado, less than 5 months ago:

https://whereofonecanspeak.com/2012/07/24/insanity/

Tom Tomorrow offers a “generic cartoon” on the theory that nothing will change:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/17/1169578/-Generic-cartoon

But maybe the horror of what happened in Newtown will finally make a difference. The NRA is trying to pretend that nothing happened last week. Certain politicians are reconsidering their positions. Maybe we can decide as a nation that some of us shouldn’t be allowed to exercise the right to bear arms, and none of us should be allowed to exercise that right by owning weapons designed to kill as many people as possible as quickly as possible.

Nicholas Kristof calls attention to some sensible ways in which we can make this a more civilized country. For example, we could regulate guns as seriously as we regulate cars and ladders:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/16/opinion/sunday/kristof-do-we-have-the-courage-to-stop-this.html

More Depravity

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From Mitt Romney’s campaign website: “Mitt will enforce the laws already on the books and punish, to the fullest extent of the law, criminals who misuse firearms to commit crimes. But he does not support adding more laws and regulations that do nothing more than burden law-abiding citizens while being ignored by criminals.” 

Of course, professional criminals don’t massacre innocent civilians. There isn’t any money in it. The men who commit these crimes are angry and/or insane but otherwise ordinary people. They don’t have underworld connections. They would find it difficult or impossible to acquire military-style weapons if such weapons were illegal.  

According to Romney, we should simply work harder at catching these people after they shoot up a movie theater, school, campaign event or commuter train. 

Unfortunately, catching them after the fact has never been the problem. The problem is to prevent them from shooting lots of us in the first place.

Depravity

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In the law, “depraved indifference” is a state of mind that can affect a defendant’s criminal liability: “To constitute depraved indifference, the defendant’s conduct must be ‘so wanton, so deficient in a moral sense of concern, so lacking in regard for the life or lives of others, and so blameworthy as to warrant the same criminal liability as that which the law imposes upon a person who intentionally causes a crime” (www.definitions.uslegal.com).

Compare what Republican Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin recently said about  our supposed constitutional right to own assault weapons that can fire up to 100 rounds without reloading: “These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can’t prevent. It’s really an issue of freedom” (Fox News Sunday, 7/22/12). 

These are rifles that are used in hunting people.

Common Sense

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Chris Rock used to get big laughs and loud applause when he suggested putting an enormous tax on every bullet sold. In a more practical vein, Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey has introduced legislation that would outlaw ammunition clips holding more than 10 rounds.

Is it possible for our government to do what is sensible and clearly constitutional?

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/opinion/6000-bullets-in-colorado.html?hp

Insanity

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1999 – Columbine – 12 dead, 21 wounded.

2007 – Virginia Tech – 32 dead, 17 wounded.

2008 – Northern Illinois – 5 dead, 21 wounded.

2009 – Fort Hood – 13 dead, 29 wounded.

2009 – Binghamton – 13 dead, 4 wounded.

2011 – Tucson – 6 dead, 14 wounded.

2012 – Tuscaloosa – 18 wounded.

2012 – Aurora – 12 dead, 58 wounded.

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

We don’t have a well-regulated militia. Instead, we have the unregulated sale of dangerous weapons.

Either weapons of war like the AR-15 assault rifle should be illegal or we should all be able to purchase surface-to-air missiles. It’s one way or the other.