Aurora, Colorado is only the latest sensation. Every so often, at least once a year, some locale in the United States of America -- a small town, a big city, or even a military base -- will experience the horror and helplessness of a beserker who arms himself to the teeth with semi-automatic weapons and shoots into crowds, wounding many and killing more than a few.
And in between these terrible events, another 100,000 Americans -- the population of the City of Green Bay -- are shot every year in other, mostly isolated incidents. A third of those shooting victims die, making guns the second leading cause of death by injury, after motor vehicle accidents. A few of these Americans even die because of "castle doctrine" laws like the new one in Wisconsin that lets shooters go free if they can show they were protecting their property.
Where's the outrage? Among average citizens, there is lots; among our elected officials, not so much. As Nichole Belle, blogging at CrooksAndLiars.com, wrote today:
"This is why we can't have nice things.
""It is my oft-repeated truism: he who frames the debate wins the argument. In the case of the frighteningly random mass shooting in Aurora, the Powers That Be are already framing the debate away from any kind of sensible gun control to a hapless shrugging of shoulders."
Indeed, the framers of gun-control defeatism have been very busy telling us now is not the time to reconsider the need for some stronger gun-control measures --at the very least, a ban on casual purchases of assault weapons like we used to have in this country.
[img_assist|nid=79561|title=gun crazy|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=180|height=120]One of the apologists this weekend who wrung his hands and said he didn't see how we could reduce gun violence was Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Another GOP senator who agreed with him yet went even farther was Wisconsin's own dumb-bell legislator, Sen. Ron Johnson, who on Sunday claimed that 100-round ammunition magazines and AR-15 assault rifles like the ones used to kill a dozen and maim many dozens more in Aurora are "basic freedoms" protected by the US Constitution.
And, like McCain, Johnson just doesn't see any way out of this mess. Gee, what could we ever, ever, EVER do to prevent this country's epidemic of massive gun violence? Here's the man soon to become your senior US senator from Wisconsin, pontificating with all the subtlety of your average dumdum bullet:
“The left always uses the term ‘assault rifle,’ and they’re really talking about semi-automatic weapons that are used in hunting. These are rifles that are used in hunting. Just the fact of the matter is this is really not an issue of guns. This is about sick people doing things you simply can’t prevent. It’s really an issue of freedom.”
"CAN'T PREVENT"?! We think Johnson really meant to say: WON'T PREVENT.