Do you want to know what the chances of something sensible happening in Washington in response to today's shooting in Parkland, Florida might be? Think of this.
In January, 2013, Senator Diane Feinstein introduced a bill in the senate that would have made it illegal for people on the national terrorist watch list from buying a gun. Think about that for a second. There is a reason people end up on the terrorist watch list. I think it has something to do with the fact that they are considered a real and reasonable threat to actually kill not just somebody, but a lot of somebodies.
And who is it that thought those people were enough of a threat to end up on the terrorist watch list? How about the people who run law enforcement. You know, the folks we think may know something about this and who we entrust to know these sorts of things to keep us safe.
The bill did not come up for a vote until December, 2015, nearly three years later and only because two days earlier we were all San Bernadino Strong after another fourteen people were killed by two people who had pledged fealty to ISIS. And even in the face of that horror, the predictable happened.
The bill went down with fifty-four senators voting no.
Every single republican, with the exception of Mark Kirk of Illinois, voted no. For the record, Mark Kirk was voted out of office in the election of 2016. Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota was the only democrat to vote no. She is still a sitting senator, more than likely due to the fact that she has not been up for reelection since this vote. North Dakota, I am watching you.
Think about this for another moment.
If Osama bin Ladin were to walk into a gun show today, he could walk out of that show with a bushel full of AR-15s, once again, the weapon of choice used to mow down our precious and innocent children, a weapon which has absolutely no use other than to kill people, and kill them in mass quantities in a brief burst of hell.
According to Senator John Cornyn of Texas, Senator Feinstein's bill to keep Osama bin Ladin from walking into a gun show and buying up every AR-15 for sale there had to be voted down because we cannot allow the federal government to infringe upon our rights given to us under the second amendment. So we have no problem with Osama bin Ladin arming himself with enough automatic weaponry to wipe out half of Florida, but we do have a problem with allowing a respected chemistry professor at the University of Kansas from staying here because his original student visa expired, in spite of the fact that he is loved in his community, has never committed a crime, is married and has three children, each American citizens, who he will be ripped apart from when he is deported. So there are your priorities in congress.
It is okay for Osama bin Ladin to walk into a gun show and arm himself, because he gets the right to do so under the second amendment.
It is not okay for Syed Ahmed Jamal, that Kansas chemistry professor, to simply stay in this country and continue teaching chemistry, being a husband, a father and a loved and respected member of his community because, well... you know... America First!!
I ended a post here on October 4, 2017 saying that I could care less about thoughts and prayers. They will do nothing to end the gun epidemic. In the absence of action, the only thing we knew was something like Las Vegas, where fifty-nine people enjoying a country music festival were mowed down, was going to happen again. The only question was when and where. On November 5, 2017, after we knew when and where, I ended a post about Sutherland, Texas where another twenty-seven, this time while praying in their local church, were killed while congress dithered by saying that somewhere soon we were going to be Any Town USA Strong in response to the next atrocity if congress did not act.
They did not act.
So today, we are Parkland, Florida Strong, and we send our thoughts and prayers to the families of this time, seventeen victims. I am sure their families are comforted right now by our thoughts, our prayers and our useless slogans.
And on television, I see senators and congressmen offering those thoughts and prayers, and telling us now is not the time to politicize this event by calling for gun control, even the meager nonsense that legislation about background checks with a million and one loopholes would amount to. I see talk about mental health legislation, which the good folks on the right recently voted to cut savagely, and in any event, will not eliminate guns from our society.
You know what I do not see?
Legislation outlawing guns that have no business in civilian hands.
Legislation outlawing gun ownership by those who have demonstrated that they cannot be trusted with guns, like violent felons, domestic abusers, the mentally ill and Osama bin Ladin.
Legislation that would repeal the Dickey Amendment and allow us to study and discuss the health effects of the avalanche of guns flowing down upon us.
Legislation that would impose liability upon manufacturers and distributors of guns who put dangerous and even defective weapons in the hands of those they have every reason to know should not have them.
And until we vote these complicit with the NRA sons of bitches out of office and put somebody in there who will introduce and implement this common sense legislation, we can all continue to furrow our brows, to weep, wail and moan, to rehearse our thoughts and prayers, and to come up with the next catchy feel good, Somewhere Sometime Soon Strong slogan, because it's going to happen again.
And we are all complicit.
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