The Killing Season

Another week. Another mass shooting.

This time at an Indianapolis FedEx warehouse. Eight people were killed by a madman with an assault weapon.

That followed massacres at three spas in Atlanta, a supermarket in Boulder, an office building in Southern California and a home in South Carolina.

It's hard not to draw the following conclusions:

1) We're not safe anywhere anymore. Not in school. Not in church. Not at a theatre. Not at a concert. Not at the grocery store. Not at the mall. Not in a spa. Not in an office building. Not in our own homes.

2) No other country in the world has this problem, yet the cowards in Congress aren't going to do anything.

Most of us involved in the movement to stop gun violence thought that the Newtown massacre of six-year old schoolchildren would be the tipping point. That would finally get Congress to act.

But no. Some alt-right conspiracy theorists claimed it never happened. A modest background check bill failed.

With that defeat, reality started to sink in. Maybe it's hopeless.

The Parkland kids gave us new hope. They spoke out. Even a few GOP officials jumped on board. But then the kids were accused of being paid actors and subjected to attacks from the right. And nothing was done.

Then the implosion of the NRA. Without the NRA's big checks and big influence, what did conservative lawmakers have to fear?

But still nothing.

What it all comes down to is this. Republicans in Congress--particularly those in the Senate--are afraid of alienating their "base" and losing in a primary to a more conservative opponent.

And, truth be told, the Republican base is now dominated by gun nuts and white supremacists who feast on the lies propagated by Fox News.

How else to explain Ted Cruz, Lindsay Graham, Ron Johnson, Rand Paul, Mitch McConnell, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Boebert, Louie Gohmert, Paul Gosar, Matt Gaetz, Jim Jordan, Chip Roy, Kevin McCarthy and Tucker Carlson? (partial list)

Of course, we'll hear more talk today about thoughts and prayers. More nonsense about how more guns in the hands of "good guys" would take out the bad guys. And how our 2nd Amendment liberties must not be sacrificed.

It's all bullshit.

We readily accept speed limits and seat belts and stop signs. It's crazy. Guns are less regulated than automobiles in America.

Universal background checks and red flag laws would help keep guns out of the hands of violent felons and madmen. Assault weapons and high magazine bans would keep weapons of war out of our homes and off our streets. Seriously, folks, who needs an AK-47 or an AR-15 to kill a deer or defend your home against an intruder?

Instead of worrying about government "coming to take our guns" these clowns in the Senate should worry about a shooter coming to take out their schoolchildren.

As I've written many times, it is the easy access to a gun that turns an argument into a homicide, a bout of depression into a suicide, and a noise in the night into an accidental shooting. And it's the access to an assault weapon that allows a disgruntled employee to exact revenge at his workplace and a mentally disturbed young man to slaughter innocent people who happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

I get surveys and questionnaires all the time from the DNC that ask me to identify the most important issues facing our country. The list includes COVID, the economy, climate change, voting rights, social justice, universal health care, etc. All important.

But gun violence isn't even listed.

Stopping gun violence must become a front burner issue in America, not a back burner issue. It needs to be a litmus test for all candidates for public office. Otherwise, innocent people will continue to be slaughtered.

This ongoing, senseless, recurring nightmare will continue until we vote out of office all the right wing cowards who play to the worst elements of the Republican party.

The sickness has to end.