Mass murders in America

I wish I could say that these horrific acts started in 2008.  They did not.   The LA Times has a list going back to 1984.

For the past several years, we have been caught in a vicious cycle of members of society, using others for target practice.  We gnash our teeth, we cry, we listen to the President express his condolences on our behalf, the pundits pundit and then silence until the next time.

And there have been too many next times, there continues to be next times.

On January 8^th, 2011 Jared Lee Loughner shot Congresswoman Gabby Gifford in her head, killed 6 and wounded 10 others.  Okay, now we will get some laws passed to help to curtail this madness, I thought.  After all, she is a well-liked and respected member of Congress.  This ability to shoot and maim because in this country buying a gun is almost as easy as buying a quart of milk will start to end.

Nothing happened, the organizations representing the gun manufacturers successfully cowed our elected officials and while Gabby and the others who survived, struggled to recover, and the President and some members of Congress made speeches, and there was no legislation. Anyone could still go to a gun show and buy and walk away with a gun,

Between 1/8/11 and 12/13/12, there were 6 additional mass shootings, 42 killed and 71 injured.

And then on 12/14/2012, our worlds stopped at the news of a teacher and a student shot at an elementary school was at the end of that day 20 first graders, 6 staff members and 1 mother were dead. (The gunman committed suicide).

President Obama standing at the podium, addressing the nation for the 12^th time since becoming our President said, “Our hearts are broken today”.

I know my heart was broken, but in the middle of my grief, I thought now, now we would see some action. Now Congress will tell the NRA to get lost and pass what is known as “common sense gun legislation”.

We are still waiting.  Not only did Congress not pass any new legislation, they allowed the Federal Assault Weapons Ban of 1993 to expire.

8 states have passed laws banning high capacity magazines.  State laws is not the answer, we need strong Federal laws.

We have to protect our citizens from those who would do us harm.

We have to make it difficult for anyone to purchase a firearm.

We have to stop allowing the gun manufacturers and their mouthpieces to convince us that in passing laws, we are curbing their 2^nd Amendment rights.  Under that premise, there should be no seat belt laws, no drug laws, no non smoking laws, no laws at all that lessens our ability to do what we want, when we want.

We, the American people do not elect Senators and Congressmen to kneel at the thrones of those who do us harm.  We elect them to preserve and protect this nation.

They have and continue to fail miserably in fulfilling their oath of office.

It is now our turn. I will be ending every blog that I write from today until laws are passed with this: