By: James P

James P — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:28:00 +0000

While keeping guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill is commendable, we should reject at long last the NRA’s nefarious re-framing of the issue to focus on those who shoot the gun rather than on the free accessibility of military assault weapons. Anyone who believes that a Bushmaster is necessary for defense of the home or person against throngs who would deprive him of his civil liberties (e.g., his hunting rifle or FOX News cable) is sufficiently paranoid to be included among those persons who should not have one. We have no evidence that Adam Lanza was mentally ill, autistic (and so what if he was) or had a personality disorder (don’t we all). He had no criminal record. Rather, he merely came from the same subculture, obsessed by assault weapons, that comprises much of the NRA. Having been home schooled, he may very well have harbored an unnatural but not uncommon fear of institutional education. Based on what we know so far, he seemed no more likely a candidate before he committed this horrible atrocity enabled by the profit motive of the gun industry, its NRA and the members, voters and legislators that it has so strongly influenced by fostering this paranoia, than any NRA member who plans to grasp tightly his semi-automatic to fend off tax collectors and other officers whose jobs it will be to enforce the laws of our democracy. Let’s put an end to any further tolerance of this NRA sponsored perversion of the assault weapon debate and prevail upon our fellow Americans to weigh in with common sense. The issue is guns, not people; and if people, it is those who would deny it.

Comments on: Guns and Rats on Agenda at West Side Town Hall

By: James P