I haven't had much to say about Newtown because there isn't much to add. Gun nuts still blame "liberals" for not wanting to live in the Wild West where everyone has a six-gun on their hip. This though research has shown that in a chaotic situation, anyone who isn't trained as a police officer will probably shoot innocent people or be mistaken for the shooter themselves. Of course it can't be that politicians who pushed for making these kinds of weapons easily available are responsible for the deaths caused by them. Noooooo...that's just a bridge too far!
Sometimes I try to follow their arguments and give them the benefit of the doubt. But to believe in an absolute Second Amendment that allows any type of weapon by mail to pretty much anyone is just fuc*ing nuts. There is no such thing as an absolute Amendment to the Constitution. Take the First Amendment. Just because speech is protected doesn't mean I can call up a school and tell them I planted a bomb there this morning. Just because religion is protected doesn't mean I can commit ritual sacrifice or use outlawed substances as part of my mystic rituals.
I support the idea that people who obey the law should be able to buy a rifle or shotgun for sport or home defense. But I just don't believe that anyone needs a handgun at any time other than police officers. Perhaps my interpretation is too strict. But oversize magazines, semiautomatic assault rifles, mail-order ammunition, hollow-point shells, etc., is just loony tunes.
It's really not that hard to fix the problem: just see the middle ground here between the red-meat red-wingers in the South who scream that Obama is going to take away their guns and the hoplophobic Northeasterners who think all guns should be outlawed. We all know that the risk of a homicidal maniac will never be completely eliminated. But the risk can be managed. Outlaw all weapons of mass murder and their accessories. If it isn't used for sport or home defense, you don't need it. Institute a buyback to purchase all the weapons out there that will be banned, rather than grandfathering them in. Close the gun show loophole already. Improve the technology of firing pins so that every bullet fired is imprinted with a code that can be traced back to the purchaser.
Anybody with half a brain cell was ready to keep the ban on assault weapons and accessories (like the oversize clips) after Columbine. After the VT shooting I lamented that politicians were cowards and the NRA was not much better than an American Taliban in its fundamentalist zeal. At the end of the day, facts are facts: more guns = more gun deaths. And if Obama doesn't grow a spine and lead on this one his legacy will be tarnished.
