Vegas

Once again we have the gun crowd telling us not to politicize the latest worst mass shooting in US history. We heard it after the last worst mass shooting in US history and we’ll hear it again after the next worst mass shooting in US history.

For my friends that don’t speak NRA gibberish, allow me to provide some translation.

·       Now is not the time to politicize this tragedy. Translation: shut up for a few days until people lose interest.

·       My thoughts and prayers are with the victims. Translation: this sounds good, but I’m not going to do anything.

But here’s the thing. We need to politicize the latest shooting. Now. And we need to keep doing it until our political class takes notice and chooses to do something.

And it’s not “too soon”. Did you ever notice how it’s always too soon after a shooting? It’s always too soon for the people who don’t want anything to change. In many cases these are the politicians who are in the pocket of the NRA. They spent $52 million on the 2016 election, $30 million on Trump alone. That buys plenty of empty “thoughts and prayers” and lots of doing nothing.

For those that think that the piles of bodies are just the “price of freedom”. That’s pure stupidity. Many countries are free and none of them allow anything close to the carnage that we tolerate every day.

This problem is not hard to solve. We simply lack the will. Random ideas that will enrage the gun crowd.

·       Register firearms and track the sales. The latest guy apparently has 23 guns in his room and 19 more at his home and thousands of rounds of ammunition. Likely all purchased legally, since apparently he was a “good guy” until Sunday night. If my neighbor decides to amass that stockpile I have a right to know. Full stop. And law enforcement should know and if you are one of those folks that thinks you need to be able have all this to keep the government from trampling on your rights (i.e., you may need to stage your own personal armed rebellion), well to hell with you.

·       Require registration of guns currently in private possession. Don’t like it? See above. After the registration period, if the gun isn’t registered, by definition it’s illegal.

·       Bring back the prior assault weapons (don’t bore me with your hair splitting about what constitutes an “assault weapon”) ban and throw out high capacity magazines while you are at it.

·       Require full background checks on all firearms sales and transfers. No exceptions (and yes, there are loopholes).

·       Bring back waiting periods.

·       Use the registration mentioned above to ensure that people with charges/convictions for violent crimes or mental illness have their guns confiscated or to at least ensure there is awareness of the presence of the weapons in the home.

·       No doubt there are countless other things we can do that would make a difference. None are a silver bullet individually, but collectively they will reduce the body count.

None of this is particularly hard. We just don’t have the will do it and I am sure we won’t this time either. Once we decided that 20 dead first graders at Sandy Hook was not going to cause us to take action, the debate pretty much ended. But we don’t have to tolerate the current situation. Just remember we collectively choose to.