CAN'T WE EVER LEARN???

A theater in Aurora.

An island in Norway.

A high school called Columbine.

A street corner in Tucson.

A campus in Virginia.

A mall in Toronto, a post office in California, a cafeteria in Texas, a schoolyard in Alabama, even the House of Representatives in Washington, and on and on and on....

Locations where people, deranged and sane, have used firearms to kill others for reasons real and imaginary, political and personal, or for no reason at all.

And yet we--our American Society--allow it to go on happening, without a single step to try to stop this insane carnage. Congress won't do it (witness all that happened after Gabby was shot..nothing.) Frankfort won't do it..unless we citizens insist..loudly and continually.

The NRA has won. Public opinion which once favored some type of gun control is now narrowly against them. The NRA keeps buying more and more public officials as it continues its illogical stance.."Guns don't kill people; people kill people."  Holy Merde, Batman!

People with guns kill people. It takes both, and society must work on both parts of the equation..but it's definitely easier to work on the guns.  Once upon a time it was illegal for private citizens to own machine guns..even assault rifles were once controlled--until the law expired, and a new, more conservative GOP-controlled Congress refused an extension. The assault rifles of today are the machine guns of yesterday.

I do not want to outlaw handguns or rifles. Neither do I want to see "sportsmen" using AK-47s to shoot squirrels. There is a middle ground. For one, eliminate the loophole that allows gun shows to avoid background checks. (some states require this and Kentucky can, too.)  And assault weapons and extended clips can be banned or at least rigorously controlled. Some form of registration for some weapons is needed.

But it won't happen unless a lot of us let our public officials know that we don't want another Aurora--which could just as easily happen at a multiplex here.

So tweet your social media friends how you feel, write your representatives in Frankfort and Washington that it doesn't have to be the NRA-way or no-way. Guns can be regulated within the Second Amendment, even under the Supreme Court's historically inaccurate understanding of it.

But first we must all get mad --and stay mad--at allowing the present situation to continue, which guarantees there will be more Auroras. Be like the Dark Knight of Network news anchors, Howard Beale...get up from your chairs, go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell.."I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!"

I'm just sayin'...