“KILL MORE PEOPLE FASTER WITH THE FANTASTIC BUSHMASTER AR-15!”

Wouldn't that would make a great advertising slogan for Bushmaster Firearms International, LLC.   Adam Lanza managed to pump up to 11 rounds into each of the 20 grade school kids he killed in Newtown, Conn.  Bushmaster must be really proud of that.  If you research the rifle you will find it is the most popular gun in America, that comes in various colors and with numerous accessories like different capacity clips.  They even raffled off a pink one for breast cancer research.  You can’t be more public spirited than that.  It is so popular it has been the weapon of choice in recent mass killings in movies, shopping malls and the intentional ambush that killed two firefighters in Webster, NY on Christmas Eve.   Malcolm Brady, a retired assistant director with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms told NPR in an interview:  “The weapon has a, shall we say, a Rambo effect, just cool to carry.  It may be for protection. It may be for the coolness. And it may be for the fact that people will be in fear that the weapon will be put back on a banned level, and they want to obtain it before it is banned again. But I think you will see the popularity of it and the purchase of them increase drastically, in between now and the holidays, near Christmas.”  Obviously, Bushmaster’s AR-15 sales will get a terrific boost from all its recent publicity.  I suppose the NRA’s Wayne La Pierre can now claim that the AR-15 is good for the economy.

Big Wayne La Pierre swaggered into town, hitched up his gun belt, squared his jaw and declared, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”  Those of you who read my December 20th blog, will immediately recognize the John Wayne Fantasy Syndrome:  The delusion that if you pack a gun you will someday save dozens of people by wasting a bad guy with an assault rifle and you will become a national hero.  LaPierre then proposed that armed guards be stationed at every school in America.  In other words, the NRA believes the way to stop gun violence is with more guns.  He also maintained that mass killings in America are the media’s fault—movies and video games--and gun availability has nothing to do with it. For a long time you have heard the NRA mantra:  Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.  No, Wayne, people with guns kill people.  You and I and every sane person in America have got to tell our rotten politicians to stop groveling to the NRA and pass meaningful gun control.   Or would you rather wait for the next Sandy Hook?

In radio interviews, facebook postings and internet chatter some men have been declaring the government better not take away their right to pack a rod for their own defense. These guys (they are all guys) are suffering from what I would call JWFS or “John Wayne Fantasy Syndrome.”  They fantasize that one day they will be in a shopping mall when a wild-eyed young man, dressed all in black, wearing a bullet-proof vest, will pull out an AK-47 and point it at the innocent, helpless crowd.  As the people shriek, cry hysterically and run, he will whip out his trusty Glock 9mm pistol and with consummate skill, he will drill the madman between the eyes with one shot.  The crowd will cheer and he will be a national hero.  Ironically, these are the same guys who want everyone else to be able to obtain guns.  I guess that’s so they will have somebody to defend themselves against.  I have lived in six major cities in the United States and done considerable travelling and never once in 75 years have I known anybody (including myself) who has required a gun for self-defense.  These guys either need reality checks or testosterone suppressants.  Probably these John Wayne wannabes would all like to live in Florida where they could shoot un-armed teenagers and claim self defense under the “stand your ground” law.  Hey Congress, wake up!  We do not live in the early 1800s anymore.  Maybe our laws should reflect that.

Inevitably, someone stated on Facebook that if the school teachers at the Sandy Hook Elementary School had been armed and trained the tragedy would have been avoided.   This is indicative of the depths of stupidity we have to deal with in America when it comes to guns.  I suppose these morons believe we could eliminate mass killings by arming everybody in places where such shootings have taken place:  fast food restaurants, post offices, universities, parking lots, churches, mosques, etc. Would you feel safer if you knew the kid serving you a Big Mac had a Glock 9mm 25-shot pistol under the counter?   Last  August  7, after  a lunatic killed six people in a Wisconsin Sikh church I wrote it was “thoughts and prayers” time again. Whenever one of these senseless mass killings takes place, our politicians wring their hands and declare their “thoughts and prayers” are with the victims and their families.  You know what?  Those “thoughts and prayers” don’t do those poor dead children and their families one God-damn bit of good.  What might help is if our spineless politicians stood up to the NRA and passed some laws that would ban the assault weapons, ammunition and high capacity clips that are the mass killers instruments of choice.