After learning of the horrific shooting of 71 people in Aurora, Colorado, I decided to check the National Rifle Association's website to see what the NRA had to say about this national tragedy.
To my surprise, I found... nothing. Although the NRA's site was overflowing with celebratory "news stories" about such matters as the joys of carrying concealed weapons, there was not a word -- not a word -- about the Aurora massacre. There was not a word about the 12 people who were killed or the 59 others who were shot; not a word about the array of weapons used by the killer; not a word about the ease with which anyone in Colorado can obtain automatic weapons; not even a word of sympathy for the families of the victims.
But, of course, why should the NRA have anything to say about this tragedy? As we all know, guns don't kill people, people kill people. This tells us something striking about Americans, by the way, because the average American is 40 times more likely to be killed by gunfire than the average Englishman or Canadian. According to the NRA, this has nothing to do with the fact that guns proliferate in America and are scarce in England and Canada. We just have to face the facts: Americans, unlike Englishmen and Canadians, are murderous by nature. The ready availability of assault weapons has nothing to do with it.
If the United States had the same gun murder rate as England or Canada, approximately 8,500 American men, women and children who were slaughtered by gunfire in 2011 might still be alive today. If the United States had the same gun murder rate as England since 2000, 100,000 murdered American men, women and children might still be alive today.
Of course, it is not only the NRA and its supporters who are accountable for this sorrowful state of affairs. It is also our elected representatives in Congress who have persistently lacked the common sense and courage to renew the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. This is, by any reasonable measure, a grievous failure of responsible governance.
In the face of this national tragedy, President Obama says this is not the time for politics but for prayer. But this is the time for politics, before we do what we always do after such massacres -- shed some tears, express our grief, say a few prayers, and then quickly go on to do what the NRA wants us to do -- change the subject.
Gareth Higgins: How Not To Kill: Some Theological Questions About the Colorado Movie Theater Tragedy
Dear Mr stone please why dont you show use how easy it is to get a automatic weapon. As it is not. If you had the any idea what you were talking about you would know this. Also if you are complaining about the NRA not saying anything about the shooting why are you also not complaining about the Brady bunch not saying anything when a gun helps someone save their life.
Thanks heavens there is very little domestic threat from Al Qaeda directly on the ground in the US, or body armor and guns control would have gone way up, not down. But what's with all this body armor?
Surely any gun can, very easily, end up in the hands of the youths you yourself criticise? We're all human, mistakes do happen.
Allowing just about everyone to own/carry guns is crazy and guarantees that more people (including children) will die in the US.
"God bless America", as you say!
An American who can't string a proper sentence together or who reacts aggessively to anything he doesn't like or understand can go out and buy multiple automatic weapons and store them in his house next to that school, hospital, church, mosque or neighbour who's annoyed him for years with his lawnmower.
Americans say they need guns for self-defence but from who? From other Americans with guns? From terrorists? The 9/11 attacks, as awful as they were, only killed 3,000 people. Americans themselves have killed many times this number of fellow Americans themselves because of their love of guns.
Insane.
Nowhere's perect, and we do have a problem with knife crime mostly amongst gangs in deprived areas of our bigger cities (London and Manchester mostly). As I mentioned in another post, it's pretty difficult to burst into a cinema, school, etc with a knife and kill or injure 100+ people.
The thing about England is I can walk down pretty much any street, even in the roughest areas, without having to worry about anyone "popping a cap in my ass".
How many guns do you own by the way?
All protected under the 2nd amendment?
In the UK, we have very strict gun laws. Most of our police don't need to carry guns (and on the whole, we don't want them to). Criminals do get guns occassionally, but it's quite rare and for those cases our Armed Response Units are called in. Every time an armed police office fires a shot, there is a full inquiry as to why and whether it could have been avoided.
Our biggest problem here is with knife crime, but as bad as that it, you can only kill or injure a small number of people with a knife, not like with automatic weapons.
“And the National Rifle Association says that, "Guns don't kill people, people do,” but I think the gun helps, you know? I think it helps. I just think just standing there going, "Bang!" That's not going to kill too many people, is it? You'd have to be really dodgy on the heart to have that…”
- Eddie Izzard
A year from now, at best the only noticeable change will be some new and totally ineffective security at cinemas across the United States. Nothing will have been done to address questions of mental health or gun control.
Many will undoubtedly claim this is a great victory from 'freedom and public safety.'
Might as well go ahead and start a countdown clock to the next mass shooting. I'm sure a great number of you already have your next 'shocked, utterly shocked' faces to roll out when the completely predictable happens yet again.