...or are we all prepared to accept responsibility for the killings in Newtown, CT?

If you get a chance (and they haven't taken it down by now) check out the National Rifle Association web site. Wayne LaPierre, Exec. VP of the gang is bragging that, in Virginia, an increase of 73% in gun sales has resulted in a decrease of 27% of gun crimes. Let's forget for a minute that these statistics have zero to do with each other. Gun sales in Virginia, the State that gave us Seung-Hui Cho and 32 dead at Virginia Tech, is up 73%. I don't swear much in these rants but, are you fucking kidding me?

I've got statistics for you...

  80 dead in mass shooting incidents in this country in 2012 alone.

  9,000 gun homicides a year. That doesn't include 51% of the suicides.

  20 children dead in a Connecticut grade school eleven days before Christmas.

So, whether you are a conservative or a liberal, please tell me when we stop whining and building monuments and start addressing the problem. I don't need to see my President weeping at the podium. I need to see him on the barricades fighting for gun laws. I have had enough of meaningless eulogies. Hell, we lost 3,000 souls on 9-11 and we declared war on two countries. We lose 9,000 people every year to mindless gun violence and our response is buy more guns. After the massacre at Virginia Tech there were state legislators who advocated for students to carry guns to class. In the wake of the Aurora, Colorado theater shooting, one NRA moron opined that, if more of the theater patrons had been armed the death toll would have been lower. By that logic, we should ensure that all teachers in public schools are packing heat.  It's that sort of thinking that will guarantee that incidents like Newtown , CT will continue.

  This isn't complicated. We are not hopelessly addicted to killing each other. There can be compromise. The NRA needs to understand that there is no slippery slope to the universal confiscation of guns. You are being lied to by your leadership. We can ban assault rifles without endangering the rights of hunters. We can chemically tag ammunition for identification. We can track the purchase of bullets. Currently, the Dept of Homeland Security knows if you buy any large quantity of ammonium nitrate, the high nitrogen fertilizer that was used in the Oklahoma City blast in 1995. However, anyone can stroll into Walmart and buy enough 9mm ammo to arm a Mexican drug cartel without so much as a ripple appearing on any government radar. Does that make sense to you? Mr. LaPierre I'm talking to you.

You're being laughed at folks. The gun lobby knows that your attention span can be measured in hours. They have your senator and congressman by the balls and they know you are powerless and too lazy to fix it.  You can stand in meaningless vigils outside the White House or wherever and, although it might make you feel good, nothing will happen. Go stand vigil at a gun shop or Walmart. (Walmart is the largest seller of guns in America. They actually had a Black Friday gun special.)   Pick up a copy of today's paper with the headline about the killings in Connecticut and deliver it to your state representative. Organize a march on Springfield, MA (home of Smith and Wesson) or New Haven, CT (HQ for Winchester Repeating Arms Co.). Tell them that you want them to lobby for sensible gun laws or we'll put them out of business. If we don't get mad and stay mad then we'd better just accept that this crazy gun culture will continue to consume us.

In any event, stop acting like we are in any way innocent of this tragedy. We light our little candles, profess shock and horror and then we go home and wait for the next gun nightmare.  Please review the definition of madness. We are living it and we are responsible for it..